EDUCATION  DEPf 


THE  UTILITY  OF 

ALL  KINDS   OF 

HIGHER  SCHOOLING 


AN  INVESTIGATION  BY 

R.  T.  CRANE 


CHICAGO,  1909 


EDUCATION  DEFT 


PREFACE. 

Part  One  of  this  book  was  published  first  in  1902, 
and  so  much  interest  was  shown  in  the  original  edition 
that  a  second  printing  was  needed  in  1903  —  this  edi- 
tion giving  results  of  my  further  investigations  as  to 
the  utility  of  an  academic  or  classical  education  for 
young  men  who  have  to  earn  their  own  living,  and 
who  expect  to  pursue  a  commercial  or  industrial  career. 

As  my  position  on  this  subject  seemed  to  meet  with 
general  endorsement,  and  long  experience  and  observa- 
tion had  given  me  the  impression  that  the  value  of 
nearly  all  other  branches  of  higher  education  was 
greatly  overestimated,  I  concluded  to  go  into  a  gen- 
eral investigation  of  the  subject,  in  order  to  ascertain 
just  what  the  facts  are,  and  have  investigated  and 
studied  the  following: 

Technical  Education  in  Manufacturing. 

Technical  Education  in  Civil  Engineering. 

Technical  Education  in  Electrical  Engineering. 

Agricultural  Colleges. 

Manual  Training  in  the  High  Schools. 

Business  Education. 

Medical  Education. 

Scientific  Education. 

Rural  Schools. 

The  results  of  these  investigations  are  now  added 
to  the  third  edition  of  Part  One,  as  Part  Two-  of  the 
present  book. 


4  PREFACE. 

I  have  undertaken  all  of  my  investigations  just  as 
I  would  go  about  any  piece  of  mechanical  work,  or  as 
I  would  consider  any  business  proposition  —  system- 
atically, deliberately,  and  with  the  purpose  of  getting 
to  the  point  by  the  shortest  way  possible,  and  it  will 
be  found  that  I  have  used  no  immaterial  matter  and 
no  unnecessary  words. 

R.  T.  C. 


CONTENTS 


PART  ONE 

INTRODUCTORY  TO  PART  ONE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

HERBERT   SPENCER'S  OPINION   OF  A   CLASSICAL 
EDUCATION. 

PAGES 

Spencer's  views  on  classical  education  —  Doctor  Eliot's 

"  five-foot  shelf  of  books  " 20-22 

CHAPTER  II. 

OPINIONS  OF  COLLEGE  MEN. 

A  statement  of  the  case  —  Copy  of  letter  sent  to  col- 
lege presidents  —  Replies  from  Charles  W.  Eliot, 
Arthur  T.  Hadley,  Francis  L.  Patton,  Nicholas  M. 
Butler,  G.  Stanley  Hall,  J.  B.  Angell,  A.  S.  Draper, 
William  R.  Harper,  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  G. 
Maclean,  E.  H.  Griffin,  E.  Benjamin  Andrews  and 
Dr.  D.  S.  Jordan  —  What  the  replies  show 23-38 

CHAPTER  III. 

OPINIONS  OF  COLLEGE  GRADUATES. 

Copy  of  letter  sent  to  college  graduates  —  Answers 
tabulated,  and  certain  deductions  —  Loyalty  to  the 
college  —Value  of  the  evidence  —  Prejudice  against 
college  graduates  —  Conflicting  opinions  of  two 
graduates  —  Failure  to  answer  —  Second  letter  of 
inquiry  39.47 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
OPINIONS  OF  BUSINESS  MEN. 

PAGES 

Copy  of  letter  sent  to  one  hundred  business  men  — 

Answers  from  forty-one  firms  and  business  men. . .     48-78 

CHAPTER  V. 

CRITICISMS  ON  THE  FOREGOING  LETTERS. 

Criticisms — Certain  deductions — Railroad  men — "Every- 
thing else  being  equal  "  —  "  Would  depend  on  the 
boy"  —  The  usual  method  of  employing  —  A  col- 
lege graduate's  experience 79-89 

CHAPTER  VI. 

FURTHER  MISREPRESENTATIONS  OF  EDUCATORS. 

President  Jordan's  extravagant  claims  —  College  cap- 
tains of  industry  —  The  testimony  of  Mr.  Andrew 
Carnegie  —  Professor  Chaplin's  fatal  admissions  — 
Reply  to  Professor  Clark  relating  to  commercial 
education  90-97 

CHAPTER  VII. 
GENERAL   DISCUSSION  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

Words  of  wisdom  — The  importance  of  starting  right  — 
Cost  of  a  college  education  —  College  conceit  and 
pessimism  —  Object  of  education  —  The  maximum 
of  happiness  —  Happiness  from  success  —  False 
pride  — When  is  a  man  educated?  — The  best  col- 
lege is  the  world  —  College  men  have  no  special 
ability  —  Educators  do  not  agree  — A  practical  sur- 
render —  "  College  aristocracy  "  —  Colleges  pat- 
ronized by  the  rich  —  Top-heavy  education 98-117 


CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
PROFESSIONAL  MEN. 

PAGES 

The  value  of  professional  education  —  Lawyers 118-120 

CHAPTER  IX. 
COLLEGE  EDUCATION  AND  CHARACTER  BUILDING. 

An  exploded  idea  —  Claim  of  colleges  as  character 
builders  —  Have  collegians  superior  character?  — 
What  students  should  be  warned  against  — The 
indifference  of  the  college  —  Danger  of  exclusive- 
ness —  A  comparison  with  savages  —  Why  do  stu- 
dents degenerate?  — Herbert  Spencer's  opinion  — 
Character  that  football  builds  —  Character  tested 
by  deeds  — Dr.  Virchow's  verdict  —  Character  in 
the  Medical  Profession 121-133 

CHAPTER  X. 
THE  MAKING  OF  STATESMEN  AND  ORATORS. 

Early  education  in  Illinois  —  Notable  array  of  states- 
men from  that  State  — How  much  schooling  is 
enough  ?  134-137 

CHAPTER  XL 
SOME  VIEWS  OF  OTHER  INVESTIGATORS. 

"The  disadvantages  of  education,"  an  English  critic's 
observations  —  Dr.  Woodrow  Wilson's  opinion  — 
Joseph  Chamberlain  on  progress  and  character 138-147 

CHAPTER  XII. 
CONCLUDING  COMMENTS  ON  PART  ONE. 

A  thankless  task  — Facts,  not  theories,  the  chief  pur- 
pose—  The  educator  and  the  merchant  who  sells 
"  shoddy  "  goods  148-149 


8  CONTENTS. 

PART  TWO 

INTRODUCTORY  TO  PART  TWO. 

CHAPTER  I. 
TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  IN  MANUFACTURING. 

PAGES 

Value  of  the  practical  —  Danger  of  impractical  things 

—  Where  technical  schools  fail  —  No  need  to  fear 
Germany    155-160 

CHAPTER  II. 

TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  IN  ENGINEERING. 

How  technical  schools  have  grown  —  Where  the  dan- 
ger lies  —  Field  for  technical  schools  —  Small- 
salaried  professors  161-167 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  FIELD  FOR  ENGINEERS. 

Uncommon  brain  capacity  needed  —  Big  cost  for  small 
results  —  Engineering  in  England  —  An  array  of 
brilliant  men  —  Rennie,  Telford,  Brunei,  Smeaton, 
Brindley,  Barlow  —  The  first  Thames  tunnel  — 
Important  problems  solved  —  American  engineers ; 
Geddes,  Wright,  Jarvis,  Eads,  Howe  — The  Erie 
canal  —  Croton  aqueduct  —  Dry  dock  at  Brook- 
lyn—  The  great  Eads  bridge  at  St.  Louis  —  The 
Mormon  temple  —  Work  of  practical  men  —  Work 
of  technical  men  —  John  A.  Roebling  — The  Brook- 
lyn bridge  — Old  principles  employed  —  Roebling's 
tribute  to  the  practical  man  —  New  York  tunnel 
work  —  Refuge  for  technical-school  graduates  — 
Size  of  a  project  not  very  important  —  Great  build- 
ings of  the  past  —  Theory  may  be  got  from  books 

—  Results  of  an  inquiry  —  Advantages  of  factory 
training  —  Wrong  meaning  of  "demand" 168-189 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER  IV. 

TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  IN  ELECTRICAL  ENGI- 
NEERING. 

PAGES 

Too  many  electrical  engineers  for  the  demand — Schools 
of  small  importance  —  Definitions  of  an  electrical 
engineer  —  Some  obsolete  teaching  —  Narrow  limit 
of  efficiency  —  Requirements  for  an  all-around  en- 
gineer—  How  the  colleges  fail  to  supply  these  — 
The  "  engineer  "  apprentice  "  —  Must  be  developed 
by  practical  work  —  A  broad  difference  pointed  out 
—  One  system  of  making  electrical  engineers  that 
failed  —  A  theory  of  cooperation  —  A  serious 
question  —  General  Electric  Company's  estimate  of 
technical-school  graduates  gauged  by  the  pay  given 
them  —  A  valuable  suggestion  —  An  absurd  propo- 
sition—  Value  of  association  —  Advantage  of  shop 
training  for  electrical  engineering  —  How  discon- 
tent is  bred  —  Substitute  for  the  college  —  Text- 
books prepared  by  practical  men 190-21 1 

CHAPTER  V. 
MEDICAL  EDUCATION. 

Overproduction  of  lawyers  —  Cussedness  of  this  line  of 
education  —  Overcrowding  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion —  Facts  from  a  reliable  source  —  Swindling 
resorted  to  by  some  high-grade  doctors 212-222 

CHAPTER  VI. 

SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION  — IS  IT  IMPORTANT  IN 
THE  PRODUCTION  OF  SCIENTIFIC  OR  PHE- 
NOMENAL DISCOVERIES  OR  INVENTIONS? 

Discoveries  and  inventions  classified  —  Some  mistaken 
ideas  —  Unjust  toward  practical  man  —  A  puzzling 
question  —  What  history  shows  —  The  research 
fad  223-228 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA  COMPANY  AND  TECHNICAL- 
SCHOOL  GRADUATES. 

PAOK9 

One  of  the  chief  sinners  —  One  opinion  out  of  fifty  — 
A  few  pointed  questions  —  Railroad  men  made 
"  while  you  wait  "  —  Small  amount  of  experience 
— Incompetent  advisers — Insufficient  training — Re- 
quirements for  roundhouse  —  Qualifications  not 
common  —  The  only  one  competent  to  judge  — 
Making  the  best  men — Preparing  good  help — How 
to  encourage  loyalty  —  No  science  in  railroading  — 
Facts  against  fancy  — A  practical  suggestion  —  Let- 
ters from  President  Thwing 229-246 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
CARNEGIE  AND  TECHNICAL  SCHOOLS. 

Mr.  Carnegie's  opinions  versus  his  practice  —  Those 
who  win  not  college  graduates  —  A  letter  from  Mr. 
Carnegie  —  Comment  —  Credit  withheld  where  due 

—  A  lack  of  frankness  —  Foundation  of  the  matter 

—  One   serious   blunder 247-257 

CHAPTER  IX. 

MANUAL  TRAINING  IN  OUR  PUBLIC  GRAMMAR- 
SCHOOLS. 

Fundamental  purpose  of  education  —  Real  captains  of 
industry  —  Wide  field  for  the  all-around  mechanic 

—  Manual    training    distinct    from    the    grammar 
grades,  cousin  to  technical  courses  —  One  Chicago 
experiment    that    failed  —  Given    a    full    and    fair 
trial  —  Boys  spoiled,   not  helped  —  Education   for 
business  —  Weakening  the  foundation  —  The  trade 
school  unnecessary  —  Marked  industrial  changes  — 
No  school  can  teach  a  trade  — How  Crane  Co. 
trains  apprentices  —  System  that  holds  the  boys  — 
No  lack  of  mechanics  —  Trade  schools  do  more 
harm  than  good 258-269 


CONTENTS.  11 

CHAPTER  X. 

AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOLING  — DO  ITS  RESULTS 
JUSTIFY  ITS  EXPENSE? 

PAGES 

What  agricultural  colleges  cost  —  Reasonable  to  ask 
proof  —  Allowance  for  exaggeration  —  Greatest  of 
our  industries  —  Why  has  the  crop  yield  fallen  ?  — 
College  men  questioned  —  The  voices  of  several 
colleges  —  Where  the  colleges  are  lacking  —  Plenty 
of  successful  farms  —  More  light  needed  —  Value 
of  agricultural  college  work  not  conclusive  — 
Questions  asked  of  farmers  —  Classifying  the  an- 
swers— Colleges  as  sources  of  information — Some- 
thing about  fertilizing  —  Stock-feeding  a  special 
business  —  What  the  "No's"  have  to  say  — The 
fundamental  things — Short  agricultural  course  fails 
to  justify  its  claims  —  What  does  the  farmer  need? 

—  The  point  for  comparison  —  Breeding,  judging, 
care  and  management  of  stock  —  Feeds  and  feeding 

—  One  useless   book  —  Veterinary  science  —  Soils 

—  Plant  life  and  horticulture  —  Farm  dairying  — 
Agricultural  chemistry — Bacteriology — Farm  book- 
keeping and  business  accounts  —  Agricultural  eco- 
nomics —  Farm   crops  —  Agricultural   engineering, 
practical  mechanics  —  Nothing  practical  from  ex- 
periment stations  —  An  oversupply  of  literature  — 
Training   of  teachers  —  Analysis  of   experimental 
station  bulletins — An  unnecessary  expense — Promi- 
nence   of    the    impracticable  —  Some    extravagant 
claims  —  Something  to  be  taught  —  Education  the 
farmer  needs   270-302 

CHAPTER  XL 

HOW  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN  DEFRAUDS 
THE  STATE. 

Some  reckless  statements  —  The  alleged  yield  of  corn 

—  Report  shows  increase  —  Planted  in  better  land 

—  Nothing  given  on  experiments  —  No  comparison 


12  CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

made  —  A  backward  operation  —  What  corn  does 
well?  —  Regarding  barley  —  Censure  is  merited  — 
Farmers  long  ahead  of  the  University's  experi- 
ments   303-3I3 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  RURAL  SCHOOL  — A  SADLY  NEGLECTED 
FOUNDATION. 

Is  all  Wisconsin  "  literally  educated  ? "  —  A  strong 
array  of  facts  to  the  contrary  —  Saving  $5  a  year 
on  the  teacher  —  A  condition  far  too  general  —  An 
inevitable  combination  —  Suppressed  official  reports 
—  Teachers'  needs  versus  the  price  of  a  cow  — 
Drawing  the  boy  from  the  farm  —  Education  given 
farmers'  children  —  Other  States  far  ahead  of 
Wisconsin  in  rural  education — The  district  schools 
of  Illinois  —  Dean  Davenport's  plea  in  the  wrong 
direction  —  "  Barking  "  for  the  "  side-shows  "  — 
Working  at  the  wrong  end  of  the  problem  —  Frank 
testimony  of  A.  F.  Nightingale,  of  Cook  county, 
Illinois  — A  suggestion  to  Wisconsin  rural-school 
authorities  314-328 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER. 

All  schooling  above  the  public  grammar  grades  worse 
than  useless  —  The  practical  man  and  the  higher 
educator  compared  —  Cheap  teachers  to  produce 
high-priced  business  men  —  Give  the  professors  a 
chance  to  earn  an  honest  living 329-331 


PART  ONE 

THE  UTILITY  OF  AN  ACADEMIC  OR 
CLASSICAL  EDUCATION  FOR  YOUNG 
MEN  WHO  HAVE  TO  EARN  THEIR 
OWN  LIVING  AND  WHO  EXPECT 
TO  PURSUE  A  COMMERCIAL  LIFE 


INTRODUCTORY  TO  PART  ONE. 

My  object  in  republishing  and  revising  this  part  is 
twofold:  First.  The  subject  of  education,  in  itself, 
is  of  the  highest  importance,  and  one  on  which  I 
maintain  the  public  at  large  holds  anything  but  sound 
and  sensible  views.  Second.  Every  boy  and  young 
man  has  a  right  to  know  the  facts  —  to  know  exactly 
what  higher  education  is  prepared  to  give  in  exchange 
for  his  time  and  money. 

In  the  term  "  higher  education  "  I  include  every- 
thing beyond  the  grammar  grades  of  the  public 
schools. 

In  investigating  the  so-called  higher  educational 
institutions  —  including  always  the  high  schools  —  one 
is  impressed  by  their  enormous  growth  within  the  last 
half-century. 

Fifty  years  ago  comparatively  few  high  schools, 
colleges  and  universities  were  in  existence  in  the 
United  States.  To-day,  as  shown  by  the  reports  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Education,  at  Washington,  there  are 
some  577  universities  and  colleges.  The  value  of  the 
property  held  by  these  institutions  aggregates  about 
$554,000,000,  and  they  have  enrolled  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  250,000  students.  In  the  9,560  secondary 
schools  there  are  nearly  1,000,000  pupils. 

As  the  secondary  schools  and  colleges  between 
triem  demand  eight  years  of  a  youth's  life  —  and 


16      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

eight  of  his  best  years  at  that  —  to  say  nothing  of  the 
money  cost  of  his  tuition  and  the  money  he  might 
earn  during  those  eight  years,  estimated  at  about  $10,- 
ooo  in  all  —  surely  it  is  proper  to  ask  what  this  higher 
education  has  to  give  the  boy,  and  whether  this  edu- 
cational equipment  is  going  to  make  him  more  fit  for 
earning  his  living  than  is  the  lad  who  goes  directly 
into  his  life's  work  from  the  common  grammar  schools. 

The  value  of  education  largely  is  a  matter  of 
individual  opinion.  But  its  real  value  may  be  approx- 
imated somewhat  by  getting  the  preponderance  of 
opinion,  as  to  its  utility,  from  unbiased  men  who  are 
in  the  best  position  to  judge.  This  course  I  have 
followed  throughout  my  inquiries,  as  I  have  felt  that 
individual  opinions,  no  matter  from  how  high  authority 
they  come,  would  have  but  little  weight  in  the  settle- 
ment of  this  question. 

Another  reasonable  way  of  judging  of  the  impor- 
tance of  higher  education  is  to  go  back  to  a  time  when 
we  had  little  of  it  and  see  if  humanity  is  any  better  off 
to-day  —  materially,  intellectually  and  morally  — than 
it  was  then. 

I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  here  that  this  country  has 
made  the  most  wonderful  progress  in  its  history,  in 
all  general  lines  conducive  to  prosperity  and  happiness, 
during  the  last  fifty  years.  And  it  is  equally  safe  to 
say  that  higher  education  had  little  or  nothing  to  do 
with  this  condition,  for  practically  none  of  the  men 
to  be  credited  with  this  advancement  had  more  than 
a  grammar-school  education. 

This  being  true,  the  question  naturally  arises :  Is 
it  advisable  to  rush  into  such  extensive  and  expensive 
experiments  in  higher  education  when  such  marked 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       17 

progress  has  been  made  without  it,  and  when  the  great 
employers  of  the  country,  almost  to  a  man,  show  no 
disposition  to  give  preference  to  the  products  of  higher 
education  ? 

Isn't  it  the  part  of  wisdom  and  prudence  to  look 
around  and  study  the  results  of  all  this  higher  educa- 
tion? Shouldn't  it  be  perfectly  clear  that  in  seeking 
an  education  you  are  getting  what  you  pay  for?  No 
one  would  buy  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  merchan- 
dise without  knowing  its  actual  value. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  give  the  results  of 
such  a  study,  to  expose  the  falsity  and  extravagance 
of  the  claims  made  by  the  higher  educational  institu- 
tions, to  set  young  men  to  thinking  clearly  for  them- 
selves, and  to  mold  public  opinion  to  the  point  of 
demanding  that  the  high  schools,  colleges  and  uni- 
versities shall  show  clearly  not  only  that  they  are 
doing  good,  but  are  doing  it  in  proportion  to  their  cost. 

My  criticism  of  higher  education  (first  published  in 
1902,  and  here  reprinted  slightly  revised  as  Part  One) 
stands  more  solidly  than  when  it  was  first  written.  It 
has  not  been,  and  can  not  be,  assailed  successfully. 

The  soundness  of  the  work  has  been  endorsed  on 
every  side,  and  my  position  has  been  strengthened  fur- 
ther by  the  general  popular  denunciation  of  colleges, 
and  the  widespread,  sharp  criticism  of  our  high-school 
system,  that  have  grown  so  common  of  late. 

In  this  book,  while  I  criticize  education,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  I  make  a  great  distinction 
between  the  terms  education  and  schooling.  School- 
ing is  simply  learning  or  memorizing  a  lot  of  unim- 
portant things,  while  by  education  I  mean  knowing 
important  things. 

2 


18      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

I  realize  that  in  discussing  this  question  I  am  at  a 
decided  disadvantage  for  several  reasons : 

First.  In  questioning  the  utility  of  college  work  in 
any  department,  the  natural  inference  is  that  I  must 
favor  ignorance. 

Second.  Popular  sentiment  is  in  favor  of  colleges, 
because  a  great  many  people,  if  they  do  not  favor  col- 
leges on  account  of  the  benefit  of  the  schooling  to  the 
student,  favor  them  as  being  highly  ornamental. 

But  before  I  finish  this  question,  I  think  my  readers 
will  see  that  I  am  quite  as  much  in  favor  of  education 
as  most  people  are,  and  a  great  deal  more  than  some 
who  pretend  to  favor  it. 

The  difference  between  us  is  that  I  am  in  favor  of 
the  education  that  educates  and  consequently  makes 
men  valuable  citizens,  rather  than  the  class  of  men  that 
these  institutions  generally  turn  out. 

It  may  seem  to  some  that,  in  commenting  on  the 
letters  received  in  response  to  my  inquiries,  I  am  too 
severe  at  times;  but  I  think  the  candid  reader  will 
agree  with  me  that  in  the  main,  at  least,  my  opinions 
have  not  been  expressed  too  strongly. 

I  asked  simple,  straightforward  questions.  I 
expected  direct,  straightforward  answers.  Yet,  in 
nearly  all  of  the  letters  from  college  men,  and  in  not 
a  few  of  those  from  business  men,  the  answers  are 
vague  and  unsatisfying,  and  in  some  instances  actually 
evasive. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  that  in  some  of  the  letters  there 
is  much  "  hedging,"  as  though  the  writers  did  not  wish 
to  speak  out  honestly  and  clearly,  for  fear  of  offending 
their  college  friends.  When  such  letters  come  from 
business  men  I  feel  that  I  am  justified  in  criticizing 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       19 

them  sharply,  because  they  do  not  impress  me  as  being 
frank.  It  looks  as  though  this  were  one  influence  of 
the  colleges  that  no  amount  of  friendliness  toward 
them  should  be  able  to  commend. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HERBERT  SPENCER'S  OPINION  OF  A 
CLASSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Upon  the  subject  of  education,  Mr.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer has  the  following  to  say : 

The  remark  is  trite  that  in  his  shop,  or  in  his  office,  in 
managing  his  estate  or  his  family,  in  playing  his  part  as 
director  of  a  bank  or  a  railway,  he  [the  college  graduate] 
is  little  aided  by  this  knowledge  he  took  so  many  years  to 
acquire  —  so  little  that  generally  the  greater  part  of  it 
drops  out  of  his  memory.  *  *  * 

If  we  inquire  what  is  the  real  motive  for  giving  boys 
a  classical  education,  we  find  it  to  be  simply  conformity 
to  public  opinion.  Men  dress  their  children's  minds  as 
they  do  their  bodies,  in  the  prevailing  fashion.  *  *  * 

A  boy's  drilling  in  Latin  and  Greek  is  insisted  on,  not 
because  of  their  intrinsic  value,  but  that  he  may  not  be 
disgraced  by  being  found  ignorant  of  them  —  that  he  may 
have  the  "  education  of  a  gentleman  "  —  the  badge  mark- 
ing a  certain  social  position,  and  bringing  a  consequent 
respect  *  *  * 

To  get  above  some  and  be  reverenced  by  them,  and 
to  propitiate  those  who  are  above  us,  is  the  universal 
struggle  in  which  the  chief  energies  of  life  are  expended. 
*  *  * 

Not  what  knowledge  is  of  most  real  worth,  is  the  con- 
sideration, but  what  will  bring  most  applause,  honor, 
respect  —  what  will  most  conduce  to  social  position  and 
influence  —  what  will  be  most  imposing.  As  throughout 
life,  not  what  we  are  but  what  we  shall  be  thought,  is  the 
question;  so  in  education  the  question  is  not  the  intrinsic 
value  of  knowledge  so  much  as  its  extrinsic  effects  on 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       21 

others.  And  this  being  our  dominant  idea,  direct  utility 
is  scarcely  more  regarded  than  by  the  barbarian  when 
filing  his  teeth  and  staining  his  nails.  *  *  * 

But  we  that  have  but  span-long  lives  must  ever  bear  in 
mind  our  limited  time  for  acquisition.  And  remembering 
how  narrowly  this  time  is  limited,  not  only  by  the  short- 
ness of  life  but  also  still  more  by  the  business  of  life,  we 
ought  to  be  especially  solicitous  to  employ  what  time  we 
have  to  the  greatest  advantage.  Before  devoting  years 
to  some  subject  which  fashion  or  fancy  suggests,  it  is 
surely  wise  to  weigh  with  great  care  the  worth  of  the 
results,  as  compared  with  the  worth  of  various  alterna- 
tive results  which  the  same  years  might  bring  if  other- 
wise applied. 

DOCTOR  ELIOT'S  "  FIVE-FOOT  SHELF  OF  BOOKS." 

To  the  foregoing  I  would  add  the  following  sig- 
nificant statement  made  recently  by  Dr.  Charles  W. 
Eliot,  for  forty  years  president,  and  now  president 
emeritus,  of  Harvard  University. 

After  selecting  from  the  best  literature  of  the  world 
a  number  of  books  that  can  be  placed  on  a  five- foot 
book  shelf,  Doctor  Eliot  says : 

It  is  my  belief  that  the  faithful  and  considerate  read- 
ing of  these  books,  with  such  rereadings  and  memorizings 
as  individual  taste  may  prescribe,  will  give  any  man  the 
essentials  of  a  liberal  education,  even  if  he  can  devote  to 
them  but  fifteen  minutes  a  day. 

This  deliberate  expression  by  a  man  who  has  spent 
his  life  in  higher  educational  work  coincides  exactly 
with  my  own  belief  as  expressed  in  several  of  my 
papers  on  education,  and  that  is:  Young  men  who 
wish  to  become  enlightened  or  educated  on  any  par- 
ticular subject  may  obtain  from  books  all  the  knowl- 
edge required,  provided  they  can  find  what  books  to 
read.  Such  persons  do  not  need  to  be  urged  to  read 


22      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

and  study  for  themselves ;  neither  do  they  need  to  go 
to  a  teacher,  for  the  teacher  can  tell  them  nothing 
more  than  they  can  find  for  themselves  in  the  books. 

There  is  nothing  specially  remarkable  in  President 
Eliot's  statement  —  except  it  be  that  he  goes  further 
than  I  have  done  in  saying  that  not  only  may  an  edu- 
cation on  special  subjects  be  obtained  from  books,  but 
also  all  the  essentials  of  a  "  liberal  education." 

Doubtless  Doctor  Eliot  always  has  known  this,  as 
most  reasonable  persons  have,  but  he  has  kept  the 
knowledge  to  himself  until  now  that  he  is  practically 
through  with  active  college  work  he  thinks  that  he 
might  as  well  be  honest  about  the  matter  and  give  the 
public  the  benefit  of  his  mature  judgment. 

All  educators  must  know  this  fact  as  well  as  Doctor 
Eliot,  yet  they  go  right  along  encouraging  young  men 
to  spend  their  time  and  money  going  to  college,  when 
they  might  be  earning  their  living,  developing  their 
character  without  the  risks  incident  to  college  life,  and 
getting  the  essentials  of  a  liberal  as  well  as  a  practical 
education  from  the  best  books  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  II. 
OPINIONS  OF  COLLEGE  MEN. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  wherever  college 
education  is  mentioned  in  Part  One  it  refers  exclu- 
sively to  the  so-called  "  academic  "  course,  or  the  clas- 
sical and  literary  department.  Too  much  emphasis  can 
not  be  laid  upon  this  distinction,  for  neglect  of  it  is  the 
cause  of  a  large  part  of  the  confusion  of  thought  and 
expression  on  this  subject  which  is  so  prevalent  among 
even  the  educated.  By  referring  to  the  letter  of 
Charles  W.  Eliot,  on  page  26,  it  appears  that  even  so 
highly  educated  a  gentleman  as  the  former  president 
of  Harvard  University  confounds  an  academic  course 
with  scientific  and  technical  courses.  The  reader  is 
urged  to  avoid  this  mistake. 

The  question  whether  an  academic,  or  even  a  high- 
school  course  is  of  benefit  to  young  men  who  have  to 
make  their  own  way  in  the  business  world  and  intend 
entering  upon  a  commercial  life,  is  one  of  such  vital 
importance  and  is  surrounded  by  so  much  doubt,  that 
it  is  high  time  it  was  thoroughly  investigated.  If  the 
facts  are  as  many  believe,  these  institutions  are  the 
cause  of  most  serious  error,  if  not  of  positive  injury 
to  this  class  of  young  men. 

A  great  deal  has  been  written  upon  this  subject, 
but,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  the  writers 
have  given  merely  their  opinions  or  theories,  not  facts. 
The  great  majority  of  college  presidents  agree  in  urg- 


24      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

ing  the  importance  of  college  education  for  business 
men,  as  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  letters  quoted 
in  the  following  pages  from  prominent  educators. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  testimony  of  a  large 
number  of  heads  of  universities,  college  graduates,  and 
prominent  business  men  would  be  of  great  assistance 
in  arriving  at  something  tangible  on  this  subject.  I 
have,  therefore,  made  an  extensive  investigation  along 
this  line,  the  results  of  which  are  here  given,  together 
with  certain  comments.  First  will  be  found  a  copy  of 
a  letter  sent  to  the  presidents  of  nineteen  of  the  prin- 
cipal universities  and  colleges  in  this  country,  and  the 
replies  from  all  who  answered;  which  will  show 
how  little  light  they  are  able  to  give  on  this  subject. 

A  COPY  OF  THE  LETTER  SENT  TO  COLLEGE  PRESIDENTS. 

CHICAGO,  September  5,  1901. 
Dear  Sir: 

The  question  of  the  utility  of  an  academic  course 
for  young  men  who  have  to  make  their  own  living  and 
who  expect  to  pursue  a  commercial  life,  is  one  of  the 
greatest  importance,  and  as  I  am  endeavoring  to  ascer- 
tain what  the  facts  are  in  this  matter,  I  should  be  very 
glad  indeed  if  you  would  kindly  favor  me  with  an 
answer  to  the  enclosed  questions. 

Thanking  you  in  advance  for  your  attention  to  this 
matter,  I  am 

Yours  truly, 

R.  T.  CRANE. 

THE  QUESTIONS  ASKED. 

I.  Is  there,  in  your  opinion,  any  evidence  that  such  edu- 
cation is  of  any  advantage  to  this  class  of  young 
men? 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       25 

2.  If  so,  what  evidence? 

3.  Have  you  made  any  systematic  effort  to  ascertain: 

[a]  What  success  such  college  graduates  have  met 

with  in  securing  positions? 

[b]  How  successful  they  have  been  after  going  into 

business? 

4.  If  question  No.  3  is  answered  affirmatively,  what  have 

you  found  to  be  the  facts? 

5.  Can  you  mention  any  employers  who,   when  seeking 

employees,  are  in  the  habit  of  asking,  from  the 
head  of  any  college,  information  regarding  stu- 
dents about  to  graduate,  with  the  view  of  selecting 
their  help  from  among  such  students? 

6.  Please  give  an  estimate  of  how  much  it  costs  your 

college  to  give  a  young  man  such  a  course  of  edu- 
cation. I  do  not  mean  by  this  simply  the  student's 
tuition,  but  you  should  also  include  interest  on 
the  plant,  taxes,  insurance,  wear  and  tear,  in  fact 
everything  that  enters  into  the  actual  cost  of  run- 
ning the  college. 

7.  Can  you  give  me  the  names  and  addresses  of  the  sec- 

retaries of  classes  that  were  graduated  from  your 
college  five  to  eight  years  ago?  I  may  wish  to 
obtain  from  them  a  list  of  their  classmates,  in 
order  to  make  some  inquiries  of  such  young  men, 
should  the  information  received  from  the  heads 
of  the  colleges  be  unsatisfactory. 

THE  OPINIONS  OF  COLLEGE  PRESIDENTS. 
Six  of  the  universities  did  not  reply,  viz.: 

Cornell  University. 
Washington  University,  St.  Louis. 
University  of  Pennsylvania. 
University  of  Wisconsin. 
University  of  Minnesota. 
University  of  Rochester. 

The  replies  received  from  the  others  I  give  com- 
plete, with  the  exception  of  their  answers  to  questions 


26      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

Nos.  6  and  7.  The  reason  for  omitting  No.  6  will  be 
found  on  page  99,  Question  No.  7,  of  course,  is  of 
no  interest  to  the  reader. 

In  considering  individual  letters, .  I  shall  comment 
only  on  such  ideas  as  are  peculiar  to  one  letter.  The 
ideas  the  various  writers  have  in  common  will  be 
treated  under  a  general  head. 

CHARLES  W.  ELIOT, 
President  of  Harvard  University. 

The  question  of  the  utility  of  an  academic  course  for 
young  men  who  are  going  into  business  can  not  be  intelli- 
gently discussed  unless  the  term  "  academic  course "  be 
clearly  defined.  I  understand  it  to  comprehend  any  course 
of  study  in  a  college  or  scientific  school  which  covers 
approximately  the  years  from  seventeen  or  eighteen  to 
twenty  or  twenty-two.  With  this  understanding  of  the 
term,  there  can  be  no  question  whatever  that  an  academic 
course  is  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  for  capable  young 
men  who  mean  to  make  their  living  in  business.  By 
business  I  understand  banking,  transportation,  manufac- 
turing, mining,  large-scale  farming,  and  engineering  in  all 
its  branches.  These  occupations  require  nowadays,  in  all 
their  higher  levels,  a  trained  mind,  and  a  deal  of  appro- 
priate information.  This  training  and  information  can 
only  be  acquired  in  colleges  and  scientific  schools.  A 
young  man  who  is  going  into  business  had  better  take  an 
academic  course,  in  my  sense  of  the  term,  if  he  has  any 
mind  to  train.  That  is  an  indisputable  proposition,  and 
there  is  no  use  in  discussing  it. 

To  get  detailed  evidence  of  the  truth  of  these  state- 
ments, I  should  advise  you  to  procure  a  series  of  the  tri- 
ennial or  quinquennial  class  reports,  which  are  published 
by  the  class  secretaries  at  Harvard,  and  I  suppose  at  other 
colleges.  These  reports  give  the  occupations  and  mode  of 
life  of  the  members  of  a  class,  and  even  of  persons  who 
have  been  temporarily  connected  with  the  class. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      27 

By  a  careful  examination  of  a  series  of  these  reports 
you  will  get  abundant  evidence  that  college  and  scientific 
school  training  nowadays  is  profitable,  indeed,  indispen- 
sable, to  a  young  man  going  into  the  higher  walks  of  busi- 
ness. To  procure  such  a  series  from  Harvard  you  had 
better  apply  to  Mr.  Jerome  D.  Greene,  President's  Secre- 
tary, Cambridge,  Massachusetts. 

This  letter,  from  so  high  an  authority,  is  such  a 
perfect  illustration  of  the  weakness  of  the  whole  argu- 
ment on  the  affirmative  side  of  my  subject,  and  of  the 
prevalent  confusion  of  thought  concerning  it,  that  I 
give  it  special  notice. 

Doctor  Eliot's  broad  assertion  that  there  is  no  use 
in  debating  the  question,  that  it  is  best  for  a  young 
man  to  take  an  academic  course,  no  matter  what  busi- 
ness he  is  going  into,  is  right  in  line  with  all  the 
absurd  positions  these  people  take.  That  is,  his  idea 
is  that  we  must  accept  his  statement  regardless  of  any 
evidence. 

In  order  to  make  out  his  case,  Doctor  Eliot  is 
obliged  to  stretch  the  academic  course  to  cover  every 
department,  classical,  scientific  or  technical ;  and  then, 
with  equal  generosity,  he  tries  to  make  "  business " 
include  farming,  mining  and  engineering.  Of  course, 
all  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  case. 

The  stretching  of  the  academic  course  to  include 
every  department  in  a  college  or  a  scientific  school,  and 
also  his  broad  definition  of  business,  is  absurd ;  and 
there  is  no  possible  excuse  for  his  not  understanding 
my  question  and  giving  me  a  frank  and  honest  answer. 

I  think  it  only  fair  to  say  that  he  found  himself, 
like  all  college  men,  unable  to  make  a  good  showing, 
and  that  he  stretched  the  question  for  the  sake  of  mak- 
ing a  better  case. 


28       ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

It  is  only  too  evident  that  the  distinguished  gentle- 
man has  neither  given  the  subject  adequate  thought, 
nor  has  he  sufficient  data  on  which  to  base  an  opinion. 
The  reports  to  which  he  refers,  giving  "  occupations 
and  mode  of  life  "  of  graduates,  would  necessarily  be 
valueless  in  determining  the  question  whether  a  clas- 
sical and  literary  education  has  assisted  them  to  com- 
mercial success. 

In  regard  to  his  saying  that  we  can  procure  infor- 
mation as  to  this  feature  from  the  class  reports,  I  have 
gone  all  through  that  sort  of  thing,  and  the  informa- 
tion obtained  —  as  may  be  seen  easily  in  this  investi- 
gation—  has  been  most  unsatisfactory.  It  strikes  me 
as  being  exceedingly  strange  that  a  man  in  such  a  posi- 
tion as  Doctor  Eliot  does  not  show  sufficient  interest 
in  his  work  to  investigate  the  lives  of  his  former 
scholars  and  outcome  of  their  education,  so  as  to  know 
definitely  the  value  of  the  schooling  he  has  given. 
Then,  in  presenting  his  institution  to  the  public,  he 
could  give  definite  information  as  to  its  value,  instead 
of  asking  people  to  take  it  on  faith. 

ARTHUR  T.  HADLEY, 
President  of  Yale  University. 

We  regard  college  education  as  of  great  advantage  to 
the  business  man,  as  well  as  the  professional  man.  This 
is  not,  however,  because  it  enables  him  to  make  more 
money,  but  to  have  more  influence  and  enjoyment  with 
the  same  amount  of  money.  It  is  this  broader  general 
object  which  distinguishes  the  college  course  from  the 
purely  technological  one. 

The  evidence  is  found  in  the  actual  position  held  by 
our  graduates  in  the  various  cities  in  which  they  live. 
One  of  my  most  important  objects  in  meeting  the  alumni 
associations  throughout  the  country  was  to  obtain  a  thor- 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       29 

ough  basis  of  judgment  on  this  point.  It  is  obvious,  how- 
ever, that  the  facts  concerning  this  kind  of  success  are  not 
readily  capable  of  tabulation. 

No  systematic  effort  has  been  made  to  compare  the 
success  of  our  graduates  in  securing  positions  with  the 
success  of  any  similar  body  of  men  who  had  not  been  to 
college. 

We  prefer  not  to  publish  a  list  of  employers  who  are 
in  the  habit  of  consulting  us. 

Regretting  the  absence  of  more  detailed  information, 
I  remain,  etc. 

President  Hadley,  like  a  number  of  others,  speaks 
of  education  as  tending  largely  to  the  producing  of 
happiness.  I  think  it  would  be  pretty  hard  to  prove 
this  assertion,  for  education  without  a  considerable 
supply  of  money  has  a  tendency  to  lead  to  discontent 
rather  than  to  happiness. 

But,  even  if  it  be  true  that  education  leads  to  hap- 
piness, why  not  distribute  that  happiness  more  equally 
by  giving  more  education  to  the  poorer  classes  of 
society,  instead  of  by  adding  more  to  those  who  already 
have  more  than  their  share? 

The  weakest  point  in  President  Hadley's  letter  is 
that  he  can  not  possibly  get  a  clear  idea  of  the  value 
of  college  education  to  his  graduates  simply  by  meet- 
ing them  at  alumni  meetings. 

If  that  is  the  main  stress  he  puts  on  the  value  of 
"  higher  education,"  it  seems  to  me  it  is  due  to  the 
public  that  he  should  present  some  definite  information 
on  this  subject. 

FRANCIS  L.  PATTON, 
President  of  Princeton  University. 

In  reply  to  your  letter  of  September  5,  I  can  only  say 
that  I  believe  that  those  who  can  afford  to  obtain  a  uni- 


30      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

versity  education  should  do  so,  no  matter  what  their 
career  is  to  be.  I  believe  that  those  who  intend  to  enter 
commercial  life  will  not  regret  the  years  they  may  have 
spent  in  obtaining  college  education.  But  I  can  not 
answer  the  specific  questions  which  you  present  to  me, 
and  I  have  no  specific  data  to  give  you  in  reference  to  the 
subject. 

NICHOLAS  MURRAY  BUTLER, 
President  of  Columbia  University. 

I  find  myself  unable  to  answer  the  questions  contained 
in  your  circular  letter  of  September  5  in  detail,  but  may 
say  that  we  have  here  abundant  evidence  that  students 
who  make  good  use  of  their  opportunities,  while  under- 
graduates in  college,  are  eagerly  sought  for  in  business 
positions.  The  man  who  does  not  make  good  use  of  his 
opportunities  in  college  is  in  the  same  position  as  one  who 

has  neglected  his  opportunities  elsewhere. 

i 

Mr.  Butler  was  asked  to  furnish  the  evidence  that 
his  "  students  who  make  good  use  of  their  opportuni- 
ties are  eagerly  sought  for,"  and  he  failed  to  do  so. 

G.  STANLEY  HALL, 
President  of  Clark  University. 

I  have  too  little  detailed  knowledge  to  answer  your 
questions,  and  have  made  no  systematic  effort  to  ascertain 
such  as  your  third  question  calls  for.  In  general,  my 
opinion  is  that  the  utility  of  an  academic  career  for  busi- 
ness purposes  depends  largely  upon  what  kind  of  an  acad- 
emic course  is  taken.  On  such  a  scale  I  fancy  the  old 
classical  course  would  mark  very  low,  and  some  of  the 
modern  technical  and  commercial  courses  and  many  of 
those  in  the  sciences  would  mark  very  high.  In  these 
days  of  the  elective  system,  an  "  academic  course  "  has  so 
wide  a  range  of  meaning  as  to  be  too  indefinite  to  make 
results  of  much  value,  unless  they  are  taken  account  of. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       31 

President  Hall  falls  into  the  same  error  as  Doctor 
Eliot  in  stretching  "  academic "  to  include  technical 
and  commercial  courses. 

JAMES  B.  ANGELL, 
President  of  the  University  of  Michigan. 

In  answer  to  your  inquiry  about  the  utility  of  an 
academic  course  for  young  men  who  expect  to  pursue  a 
commercial  life,  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  we  have  never 
undertaken  to  gather  any  statistics  on  this  point.  We  know 
that  a  good  many  of  our  graduates  are  successful  business 
men.  Our  general  belief  about  the  matter  is  simply  this : 
that  the  more  a  man's  intellectual  powers  are  developed, 
the  more  capacity  he  has  for  any  undertaking  in  life  which 
calls  for  such  powers.  In  other  words,  the  more  of  a  man 
one  is,  the  more  successful  will  he  be  in  any  worthy  enter- 
prise. I  have  heard  business  men  say  that,  although  it 
seemed  that  the  time  spent  in  college  compelled  the  grad- 
uate to  start  lower  down  the  scale  at  the  age  say  of 
twenty-one,  tkan  a  young  man  who  had  entered  as  a  clerk 
say  at  sixteen,  yet  that  the  former  often  showed  so  much 
capacity  for  comprehending  new  conditions  and  responsi- 
bilities that  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  he  passed  the 
other.  I  suppose  this  would  not  always  be  true.  Much 
depends  upon  the  personality  in  either  case. 

A.  S.  DRAPER, 
President  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 

I  am  in  receipt  of  your  favor  of  September  5.  The 
subject  to  which  your  questions  refer  is  one  which,  it 
seems  to  me,  can  not  be  adequately  treated  in  the  way 
you  have  adopted.  I  have  no  doubt  that  college  training 
is  of  substantial  value  to  men  engaged  in  business  life. 
I  think  the  proofs  of  it  are  to  be  found  without  difficulty, 
and  there  are  numerous  evidences  of  it  coming  in  one 
way  and  another  to  the  officers  of  this  university.  At  the 
same  time  these  proofs  and  evidences  can  not  be  presented 


32      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

in  form  in  answer  to  categorical  questions,  and,  more- 
over, it  would  take  some  time  and  investigation  to  bring 
them  together  for  presentation  in  any  form.  I  should  be 
very  glad  indeed  to  attempt  the  task  when  leisure  would 
permit,  if  there  seems  to  be  any  general  demand  for  it, 
but  under  the  circumstances  in  which  I  find  myself  at 
present  I  can  not  attempt  it. 

Regretting  that  I   am  unable  to  render  you   a  more 
substantial  service  just  now,  I  am,  etc. 

In  my  opinion,  Mr.  Draper  could  not  spend  his 
time  in  any  better  way  than  in  trying  to  find  out  the 
value  of  his  work. 


WILLIAM  R.  HARPER, 
President  of  the  University  of  Chicago. 

Your  letter  of  September  5  was  duly  received,  and  I 
beg  to  submit  answers  to  the  questions  of  your  accom- 
panying circular : 

1.  My  opinion  is  that  a  college  education  is  of  decided 
advantage  to  young  men  who  propose  to  enter  business. 
This  opinion  finds  a  reflection  in  the  College  of  Commerce 
and  Administration,  which  the  University  of  Chicago  has 
established,  a  circular  of  which  I   send  you  under  sep- 
arate cover.    My  opinion  is  founded  upon  the  theory  that 
a  trained  mind  anywhere  is  able  to  do  hf*tt°ir  work  than 
an   untrained   mind,    and    while,    under   certain   circum- 
stances, one  who  is  working  his  way  upward  in  a  business 
from  the  lower  positions  may  have  a  practical  knowledge 
not  at  first  possessed  by  the  college  graduate,  yet,  in  the 
long  run,  at  times  when  critical   judgment  and  prompt 
decision  are  required,  the  one  who  has  the  broader  out- 
look in  an  educational  way  ought  to  prove  the  more  valu- 
able. 

2.  The  evidence  in  support  of  this  opinion  can  not, 
perhaps,  be  presented  specifically,   but   again   and   again 
students   have   come  to  the  university  to  get   additional 
training  just  because  they  have  found  that  it  was  possible, 
in  practical  experience,  for  them  to  advance  only  so  far. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      33 

A  number  of  cases  occur  to  me  in  which  very  able  men 
have  given  up  business  positions  which  paid  them  well, 
because  of  the  observation  that  those  who  had  better  edu- 
cations were  advancing  more  rapidly  and  were  able  to 
command  better  salaries. 

3.  No  systematic  effort  has  been  made  by  the  univer- 
sity to  ascertain  what  success  college  graduates  have  met 
with  in  securing  positions,  or  how  successfully  they  have 
filled  them  after  getting  into  business,  but  from  my  knowl- 
edge of  the  alumni  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  of 
other  institutions  with  which  I  have  been  connected,  my 
opinion  is  that  while  at  the  start  there  has  been  some  dis- 
appointment in   the   realization  of  ambitions,  yet  in  the 
main,  college  graduates  who  have  entered  business  have 
been  as  successful  as  could  be  expected. 

4.  N.  W.  Harris  &  Co.,  of  this  city,  have  made  inquiry 
at  the  University  of  Chicago  for  the  names  of  any  stu- 
dents about  to  graduate  who  desire  to  enter  business,  and 
we  have  been  able  to  refer  to  them  a  number  of  excel- 
lent men  who  were  accepted  by  them  on  our  recommenda- 
tion, and  who  now  are  either  employed  by  them  or  have 
been  advanced  to  better  positions  because  of  the  excellence 
of  work  done  with  them. 

Swift  &  Co.,  of  this  city,  have  employed  a  large  num- 
ber of  graduates  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  stu- 
dents not  graduates,  who  have  been  recommended  to  them 
by  the  university  authorities.  Letters  of  inquiry  of  a 
similar  nature  are  received  frequently  from  other  business 
houses,  these  two  mentioned  being  perhaps  notable. 

President  Harper  also  misconstrues  my  question  of 
an  academic  education  when  he  refers  me  to  the  Col- 
lege of  Commerce  and  Administration. 

BENJAMIN  I.  WHEELER, 
President  of  the  University  of  California. 

It  is  difficult  to  answer  your  letter  of  the  5th  inst, 
because  it  is  uncertain  what  you  mean  by  "academic 
course."  Within  our  academic  course  is  included,  for 


34      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

instance,  work  in  mining,  electricity,  mechanics,  etc.  We 
put  these  studies  on  the  same  level  with  the  humanistic 
studies  leading  to  the  degree  of  B.  A. 

I  think  there  is  evidence  that  an  education  in  commer- 
cial branches  or  in  engineering  is.  serviceable  for  young 
men  about  to  enter  a  commercial  life.  I  think  there  is 
lack  of  evidence  on  the  subject  of  the  more  general  course 
of  study,  with  the  presumption  against  it. 

In  addition  to  the  letter  above  quoted,  he  answers 
in  the  negative  to  the  question  whether  he  has  made 
any  systematic  effort  to  ascertain  what  success  college 
graduates  have  met  with  in  securing  positions,  and  how 
successful  they  have  been  after  going  into  business. 

The  answers  from  the  next  -four  gentlemen  are 
quoted  as  given  on  the  inquiry  sheet  sent  to  them. 

GEORGE  MACLEAN, 
President  of  the  University  of  Iowa. 

In  reply  to  the  question  whether,  in  his  opinion, 
there  is  any  evidence  that  such  education  is  of  advan- 
tage to  this  class  of  young  men,  he  says :  "  Decidedly 
yes." 

To  the  request  for  evidence  upon  this  point,  he 
answers :  "  Statistics  of  '  Who's  Who,'  articles  by 
President  Thwing,  and  observation  in  my  circle  of 
acquaintances." 

He  states  that  no  systematic  effort  has  been  made 
to  ascertain  what  success  such  college  graduates  have 
met  with  in  securing  positions,  or  how  successful  they 
have  been  after  going  into  business. 

In  answer  to  the  question  whether  he  could  name 
any  employers  who,  when  seeking  employees,  are  in 
the  habit  of  applying  to  colleges,  he  says :  "  Appli- 
cations not  infrequent." 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       35 

EDWARD  H.  GRIFFIN, 
Dean  of  the  College  Faculty  of  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

President  Ira  Remsen,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity, stated  that,  as  he  had  just  assumed  office  and 
had  had  no  experience  that  would  help  him  to  answer 
the  questions,  he  had  referred  the  inquiry  to  Edward 
H.  Griffin,  Dean  of  the  College  Faculty.  This  gentle- 
man replied  as  below. 

To  the  question  whether  there  is,  in  his  opinion, 
any  evidence  that  such  education  is  of  any  advantage 
to  this  class  of  young  men,  he  answers :  "  Yes,"  the 
evidence  being,  as  he  states :  "  The  successful  careers 
of  the  vast  majority  of  college  graduates." 

How  does  he  know  they  have  been  successful? 

In  reply  to  the  question  whether  he  has  made  any 
systematic  effort  to  ascertain  what  success  such  college 
graduates  have  met  with  in  securing  positions,  and  how 
successful  they  have  been  after  going  into  business,  he 
says:  "  I  have  made  no  such  effort,  but  have  followed 
the  subsequent  lives  of  most  of  my  students  and  have 
been  struck  with  the  small  percentage  of  failures." 

The  question  whether  he  can  mention  any  employ- 
ers who  apply  to  colleges  when  seeking  help,  he 
answers  in  the  negative. 

E.  BENJAMIN  ANDREWS, 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nebraska. 

He  replies  "  Yes  "  to  the  question  whether,  in  his 
opinion,  such  education  is  of  any  advantage  to  this 
class  of  young  men,  and  in  response  to  the  request 
for  this  evidence  he  says :  "  They  get  higher  posi- 
tions, as  a  rule.  This  is  not  the  highest  advantage. 


36      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

The  highest  advantage  is  that  they  have  an  inner 
life  of  enjoyment  in  reading,  thinking,  and  under- 
standing things." 

Replying  to  the  question  whether  he  has  made  any 
systematic  effort  to  ascertain  what  success  such  college 
men  have  met  with  in  securing  positions,  he  says : 
"  No  effort  is  needed  to  one  in  my  business ;  the  facts 
are  obvious." 

As  to  how  successful  they  have  been  after  going 
into  business,  he  replies :  "  In  the  main,  highly  so." 
He  further  remarks :  "  Take  a  period  of  twenty  or 
thirty  years  after  graduation,  and  the  well  educated 
get  and  keep  positions  far  more  securely  and  regularly 
than  others  of  the  same  ages." 

To  the  question  whether  he  could  mention  any 
employers  who  are  in  the  habit  of  applying  to  colleges 
when  in  need  of  help,  he  answers :  "  Yes,  I  could 
name  a  considerable  number." 

When  I  wrote  to  President  Andrews,  requesting  the 
names  of  this  "  considerable  number,"  he  replied  that 
he  guessed  he  had  made  it  a  little  too  strong ;  that  he 
could  name  only  two,  and  one  of  them  was  dead! 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN, 
President  of  the  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University. 

In  answer  to  the  question  whether,  in  his  opinion, 
there  is  any  evidence  that  such  education  is  of  any 
advantage  to  this  class  of  young  men,  he  says :  "  Such 
an  education  is  of  daily  advantage  to  any  man  of 
brains  and  character." 

When  asked  for  evidence  on  this  point,  he  replies : 
"  It  gives  not  always  better  wages,  but  a  broader 
horizon,  a  more  refined  taste,  a  saner  judgment,  and 
a  higher  range  of  friends." 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      37 

Answering  the  question  whether  he  had  made  any 
systematic  effort  to  ascertain  the  success  such  college 
graduates  have  met  with  in  securing  positions,  and  how 
successful  they  have  been  after  going  into  business,  he 
says :  "  Every  one  in  any  field  finds  a  place  as  good 
as  he  is  fit  for,  experience  being  also  considered.  I 
keep  pretty  close  watch  of  our  own  graduates  and 
know  of  no  failures,  but  our  graduates  are  too  young 
to  show  many  notable  cases ;  the  first  class  was  gradu- 
ated in  1895." 

In  reply  to  the  question  whether  he  can  mention 
any  employers  who  are  in  the  habit  of  applying  to 
colleges  when  in  need  of  help,  he  says :  "  Employers 
desiring  engineers  or  teachers  frequently  make  such 
applications." 

WHAT  THE  REPLIES  SHOW. 

President  Hadley,  of  Yale  University;  President 
Wheeler,  of  the  University  of  California,  and  Presi- 
dent Hall,  of  Clark  University,  are  the  only  ones  who 
are  frank  enough  to  admit  that  the  presumption  is 
against  the  practical  utility  of  an  academic  course  for 
business  men. 

Such  admissions  coming  from  three  men  so  promi- 
nent ought  to  set  people  thinking  and  questioning  the 
utility  of  the  college  education  for  a  business  man.  In 
view  of  the  fact  that  so  many  of  their  students  would 
go  into  business,  the  natural  tendency  of  college  presi- 
dents would  be  to  claim  that  their  institutions  had 
advantages  in  qualifying  a  man  for  business. 

All  of  the  others  appear  to  be  positive  that  such 
education  is  of  benefit  to  men  in  commercial  life ;  but 
when  asked  for  evidence  to  support  this  claim,  few 
have  attempted  to  furnish  it,  and  such  information  as 


38      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

these  few  have  offered  is  found,  upon  investigation,  to 
amount  to  nothing. 

I  leave  it  to  the  public  to  judge  whether  the  heads 
of  these  institutions  have  a  proper  appreciation  of  the 
importance  of  making  accurate  statements  on  this  sub- 
ject. There  is  nothing  in  their  letters  to  show  that 
they  have  made  any  investigation  to  ascertain  the  true 
condition  of  the  question. 

It  certainly  would  not  do  for  a  business  man  to 
conduct  his  affairs  in  this  way.  If  he  turns  out  value- 
less goods  and  makes  false  statements  about  them,  he 
very  soon  finds  that  it  has  a  disastrous  effect  on  his 
business. 


CHAPTER  III. 
OPINIONS  OF  COLLEGE  GRADUATES 

Next  will  be  found  a  copy  of  an  inquiry  sent  to 
the  members  of  classes  that  had  been  graduated  about 
seven  years  before  from  the  following  institutions : 

Yale  University.  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Harvard  University.  University  of  Illinois. 

Cornell  University.  University  of  Iowa. 

Columbia  University.  University  of  Minnesota. 

Princeton  University.  University  of  Wisconsin. 

University  of  Chicago.  University  of  Nebraska. 

University  of  Rochester.  University  of  California. 

A  COPY  OF  THE  LETTER  SENT  TO  COLLEGE  GRADUATES. 

The  utility  of  an  academic  education  for  young  men 
who  have  to  earn  their  own  living,  and  who  expect 
to  pursue  a  commercial  life. 

Dear  Sir: 

In  connection  with  a  paper  that  I  am  preparing 
upon  this  subject,  I  am  desirous  of  obtaining  from 
college  graduates  some  definite  information  regarding 
the  points  mentioned  on  enclosed  sheet. 

Those  whom  I  particularly  wish  to  hear  from  are 
the  graduates  who  entered  upon  a  commercial  career 
and  were  obliged  to  start  out  to  make  their  own  way 
in  the  world  without  the  influence  of  either  family  or 


40      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

friends  —  in  other  words,  without  what  is  commonly 
called  a  "  Pull." 

Not  knowing  the  conditions  that  have  surrounded 
the  various  members  of  your  class  in  college,  I  am 
sending  this  letter  to  each  of  them. 

Of  course,  if  you  do  not  come  under  the  list  above 
referred  to,  your  answers  to  these  questions  are  not 
desired,  but  in  that  event  I  should  be  very  glad  if  you 
would  advise  me  of  such  fact. 

The  subject  I  am  investigating  is  one  of  so  much 
interest  and  importance  that  I  sincerely  hope  all  to 
whom  this  letter  applies  will  assist  in  this  effort  to 
arrive  at  a  solution  of  the  matter  by  furnishing  the 
desired  information. 

Thanking  you  in  advance  for  your  kind  attention 
to  this  request,  I  am 

Yours  truly, 

R.  T.  CRANE. 

THE  QUESTIONS  ASKED. 

1.  When  did  you  leave  college? 

2.  When  did  you  first  take  a  position  after  leaving  col- 

lege? 

3.  How  many  positions  have  you  held? 

4.  Length  of  time  in  each  position? 

5.  What  was  the  nature  of  your  work  in  the  various 

positions  ? 

6.  Salary  received  in  first  position? 

7.  Present  salary? 

8.  Was  your  college  education  of  any  advantage  to  you 

in  obtaining  a  situation? 

9.  Has  it  been  of  benefit  to  you  in  the  performance  of 

your  duties  and  in  securing  advancement? 
10.    What,  in  your  opinion,  would  have  been  your  posi- 
tion to-day,  as  compared  with  the  place  you  now 
hold,  had  you,  instead  of  going  to  college,  started 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      41 

at  that  time  in  a  position  similar  to  the  one  you 
did  obtain  after  leaving  college? 

ii.  If  you  had  your  life  to  live  over,  would  you  take  a 
college  course  in  preference  to  starting  in  busi- 
ness that  much  earlier? 

THE  REPLIES  AND  CERTAIN  DEDUCTIONS. 

Total  number  of  letters  sent  to  college  graduates.. .  .1,593 

Letters  returned  undelivered 129 

Answers  received   555 

Number  not  replying pop 

Of  the  555  answers  received,  490  were  from  stu- 
dents who  have  either  taken  up  a  professional  or 
technical  line  of  work,  or  who  state  that  they  do  not 
come  within  the  scope  of  this  investigation. 

This  leaves  only  sixty-five  letters  from  the  class 
of  young  men  whom  I  particularly  desired  to  reach, 
which  is  so  small  a  proportion  of  the  whole  that  the 
information  furnished  by  them  does  not  throw  much 
light  upon  the  subject.  I  will,  however,  tabulate  their 
replies,  so  that  the  public  may  see  what  they  have  to 
say. 

In  regard  to  the  question  concerning  their  present 
income,  fourteen  do  not  answer  at  all  and  twenty  state 
that  they  are  in  business  for  themselves.  The  replies 
from  the  remaining  thirty-one  show  that  nearly  all  are 
doing  very  well  on  this  score. 

The  question  whether  a  college  education  has  been 
of  benefit  to  them,  in  the  performance  of  their  duties 
and  in  securing  advancement,  is  answered  in  the 
affirmative  by  fifty,  and  in  the  negative  by  seven.  The 
others  give  no  information  upon  this  point. 

To  the  question  whether  their  college  education 
was  of  any  advantage  to  them  in  obtaining  a  situation, 


42      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

thirty-two  answer  "  Yes,"  and  twenty-seven  "  No." 
The  remainder  either  state  that  they  do  not  know  or 
make  no  reply  whatever. 

When  we  consider  the  general  spirit  of  loyalty 
toward  the  colleges  which  the  students  have  exhibited 
in  their  letters,  the  fact  that  nearly  one-half  of  the 
answers  to  this  question  are  in  the  negative  would 
seem  to  be  sufficient  evidence  to  settle  this  matter  to 
the  satisfaction  of  every  one. 

In  answer  to  the  question  —  what,  in  their  opinion, 
would  have  been  their  position  to-day,  as  compared 
with  the  place  they  now  hold,  had  they,  instead  of 
going  to  college,  started  at  that  time  in  a  position  sim- 
ilar to  the  one  they  did  obtain  after  leaving  college  — 
twenty-seven  believe  it  would  have  been  inferior,  four- 
teen that  it  would  have  been  better,  and  thirteen  that  it 
would  have  been  about  the  same. 

LOYALTY  TO  THE  COLLEGE. 

Sixty  out  of  the  sixty-five  say  that,  if  they  had  their 
lives  to  live  over,  they  would  take  a  college  course ;  for 
even  those  who  admit  that  they  would  be  better  off 
financially  if  they  had  not  gone  to  college,  claim  that 
whatever  they  lose  in  this  respect  is  more  than  com- 
pensated for  by  the  college  experience  and  the 
increased  capacity  which  it  has  given  them  for  enjoy- 
ing life.  An  extreme  instance  of  this  is  seen  in  the  case 
of  one  of  these  young  men  who  states  that  upon  leaving 
college  he  had  neither  pull  nor  capital ;  that  he  thinks 
his  college  experience  was  of  no  material  or  direct 
benefit  to  him  in  securing  a  position ;  that  he  finally 
drifted  into  the  cattle  business  out  West,  in  which  he 
was  unsuccessful,  and  that  he  is  now  out  of  a  position. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      43 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  and  admitting,  as  he  does, 
that  had  he  continued  in  business  instead  of  going  to 
college,  his  financial  condition  undoubtedly  would  have 
been  better  than  it  is  to-day,  he  says : 

I  think  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  if  I  had  the  decision 
to  make  over  again  I  should  again  take  the  college  edu- 
cation. It  may  not  make  great  returns  on  the  investment 
in  actual  money,  but  to  the  man  who  has  the  taste  and 
determination  it  makes,  I  feel,  adequate  returns  in  the 
enlarged  field  he  is  given  for  the  pursuits  of  his  life  with 
happiness  to  himself,  and  with  some  benefit  to  those  about 
him. 

In  further  illustration  of  this  feeling,  I  refer  to  a 
letter  from  a  young  man  who  has  gone  into  the  bank- 
ing business,  and  whose  statements  are  quoted  else- 
where in  connection  with  another  branch  of  the  sub- 
ject. While  he  frankly  acknowledges  that  his  college 
education  does  not  compensate  for  the  lack  of  prac- 
tical training,  and  that,  so  far  as  his  business  is  con- 
cerned, he  would  be  better  off  if  he  had  remained  at 
home,  still  he  says  that,  if  he  had  his  life  to  live  over 
again,  he  would  certainly  go  to  college,  "  Since  the 
satisfaction  of  a  broader  life  makes  up  for 


VALUE  OF  THE  EVIDENCE. 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  replies 
received  represent  that  part  of  the  1,593  men  addressed 
who  are  able  to  make  the  most  favorable  report,  it  may 
be  fairly  assumed  that  the  sixty-five  letters  which  are 
pertinent  to  our  inquiry  constitute  the  best  showing 
which  can  be  made  on  the  affirmative  side.  From  this 
point  of  view  they  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  very 
strong  evidence  of  the  college  graduate's  success  in 
business. 


44      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

But  this  evidence,  such  as  it  is,  becomes  still 
weaker  in  view  of  the  nature  of  the  replies  made  to  the 
last  question.  It  is  evident  that  sixty  out  of  the  sixty- 
five  believe  that  the  intellectual  advantages  coming  to 
them  from  college  education  are  more  valuable  than 
financial  success,  and  this  bias  has  doubtless  influenced 
their  judgment  in  replying  to  questions  8,  9  and  10. 
For  it  is  to  be  noticed  that,  in  the  answers  to  8,  9  and 
10,  we  have  no  particulars  or  facts,  but  only  the  vague 
general  judgment  of  the  writers. 

Much  more  to  the  point  are  the  positive  statements 
by  several  that  they  really  found  a  strong  feeling 
among  business  men  against  employing  college  grad- 
uates, and  that  they  were  actually  at  a  disadvantage 
on  that  account. 

PREJUDICE  AGAINST  COLLEGE  GRADUATES. 

As  one  of  them  remarks : 

The  man  who  has  been  trained  to  do  certain  work, 
says:  "Will  you  hire  me?  I  can  do  this  work."  Col- 
lege graduates  can  only  ask  for  a  chance  to  try  to  do  it. 
*  *  *  Judging  from  my  own  experience,  a  graduate 
of  a  college  who  should  try  to  make  his  way  in  the  world 
in  commercial  life,  absolutely  without  influence  of  family 
or  friends,  would  stand  a  poor  chance  in  competition  with 
the  young  man  of  equal  age  who  had  received  a  thor- 
ough business  training. 

Another,  who,  upon  leaving  college,  took  up  news- 
paper work,  and  is  now  proprietor  of  a  paper,  says : 

I  belong  most  decidedly  to  the  class  you  mention.  In 
entering  upon  my  business  life,  after  completing  my 
course,  I  found  a  strong  feeling  against  the  "  College 
Graduate."  I  was  actually  at  a  disadvantage  due  to  this 
prejudice.  I  have  always  guarded  against  any  reference 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       45 

to  my  college  work  when  in  business  circles,  feeling  that 
it  was  the  discretion  that  is  "  the  better  part  of  valor." 
Of  course,  I  am  persuaded  the  drill  at  college  has  enabled 
me  to  make  progress  and  enjoy  to-day  a  broader  life  than 
would  have  been  possible  without  it. 

CONFLICTING  OPINIONS  OF  Two  GRADUATES. 

As  an  example  of  the  conflicting  opinions  held  by 
men  in  the  same  line  of  business,  with  regard  to  the 
benefits  of  a  college  education  in  a  commercial  life,  I 
quote  from  letters  received  from  two  students  who  are 
now  engaged  in  banking. 

The  first,  upon  leaving  college,  became  connected 
with  a  bank  which  his  father  (who  received  only  a 
common-school  education)  had  already  built  up  into 
a  successful  concern.  This  young  man  says : 

Whatever  success  I  may  have  received  I  attribute 
entirely  to  my  course  at  college,  where  I  learned  to  judge 
human  nature  in  a  way  I  could  never  have  acquired  else- 
where ;  also,  the  methods  used  to  learn  the  college  lessons 
I  have  been  able  to  apply  to  other  things  and  arrive  at  a 
rapid  and  accurate  conclusion.  I  was  also  taught  self- 
reliance,  and  to  stick  to  a  thing  until  it  was  accomplished. 

His  opinion  of  what  his  position  would  be  to-day, 
had  he  started  in  business  at  the  time  he  entered  col- 
lege, is  expressed  as  follows : 

I  would  have  been  an  undeveloped,  narrow-minded 
bank  clerk,  and  would  never  have  achieved  any  of  the 
success  I  may  have  done.  College  taught  me  to  judge 
human  nature,  the  most  important  thing  in  banking. 

This  letter  might  seem,  on  superficial  consideration, 
to  constitute  strong  evidence  for  the  affirmative,  but 
most  of  its  strength  evaporates  after  more  careful 
perusal.  What  the  writer  has  to  say  about  being  an 


46      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

"  undeveloped,  narrow-minded  bank  clerk  "  if  he  had 
not  gone  to  college,  shows  plainly  that  he,  also,  is  con- 
founding intellectual  advantages  with  financial  suc- 
cess. Our  investigation  has  to  do  with  the  latter  only. 

The  rest  of  what  he  says  is  more  to  the  point,  but 
the  question  whether  college  is  a  better  place  for  learn- 
ing seji-rdiaiice.-an4--kna^  nature  than 
the  business  world,  is  considered  fully  on  ""page  1 08. 

The  other  banker  says :  "  I  unfortunately  work  in 
my  father's  bank,  holding  a  position  my  education  did 
not  especially  fit  me  for.  Had  I  foreseen  a  business 
career,  I  am  certain  the  college  education  I  received 
could  have  been  combined  with  other  work  that  would 
have  been  of  immense  advantage  to  me.  A  literary 
and  scientific  education  does  not  compensate  me  for 
the  lack  of  practical  knowledge." 

In  regard  to  the  question  whether  a  college  educa- 
tion has  been  a  benefit  to  him  in  the  performance  of  his 
duties,  etc.,  he  says:  "No  and  yes  —  my  general 
information  has  helped  me,  but  my  lack  of  special  and 
local  knowledge  has  hurt." 

With  regard  to  his  probable  position  had  he  not 
gone  to  college,  he  says : 

In  a  country  bank  thorough  knowledge  of  local  con- 
ditions and  acquaintance  with  people,  with  proper  cler- 
ical experience,  is  everything.  I  would  be  better  off  in 
this  respect  if  I  had  stayed  at  home. 

FAILURE  TO  REPLY. 

I  particularly  requested  in  my  letter  to  college  men 
that  all  to  whom  this  inquiry  did  not  apply  take  the 
trouble  so  to  inform  me,  for  which  purpose  a  return 
envelope,  stamped  and  addressed,  was  enclosed.  As 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      47 

so  many  who  did  reply  seem  to  have  been  prompted  by 
a  spirit  of  fraternal  feeling  and  of  loyalty  toward  col- 
leges to  go  out  of  their  way  in  order  to  say  a  good 
word  for  these  institutions,  I  think  it  is  proper  to  infer 
that  the  large  number  who  refrained  from  answering 
had  been  unsuccessful  in  business  and  feared  that  an 
acknowledgment  of  this  fact  would  be  used  to  the 
disadvantage  of  colleges.  Owing  to  their  feeling  of 
loyalty,  they  would  not  like  to  see  this  done. 

SECOND  LETTER  OF  INQUIRY. 

After  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of  this 
book,  Mr.  A.  C.  Bartlett,  in  a  letter  to  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  of  February  4,  1902,  took  exception  to  the 
foregoing  remarks  regarding  the  young  men  who 
failed  to  answer  my  original  inquiry,  claiming  that  "  in 
these  days  of  printed  circular  letters  upon  all  manner 
of  subjects,  the  failure  of  a  thousand  to  respond  should 
hardly  be  attributed  to  a  want  of  success."  In  order 
to  find  out,  if  possible,  something  about  those  gradu- 
ates, I  then  sent  out  letters  of  inquiry  regarding  them 
to  people  living  in  their  vicinity. 

This  later  investigation  brought  in  only  353  replies 
that  contained  any  information,  and  as  in  most  cases 
the  answers  were  incomplete  and  unsatisfactory,  it  is 
of  little  value  in  the  consideration  of  this  subject. 
There  is  nothing  in  it  to  cause  me  to  change  the  opin- 
ion expressed  above  regarding  these  young  men. 


CHAPTER   IV. 
OPINIONS  OF  BUSINESS  MEN. 

The  preceding  pages  have  given  the  reader  the  best 
arguments  that  can  be  produced  in  favor  of  a  clas- 
sical and  literary  education  for  business  men,  by  the 
most  prominent  advocates  thereof.  But  these  need  to 
be  supplemented  by  the  opinions  of  employers  and 
practical  business  men. 

The  judgments  of  college  presidents  and  college 
graduates  on  such  a  subject  are  of  necessity  altogether 
theoretical,  even  when  they  are  not  biased.  In  all 
probability,  no  college  president  ever  has  been  obliged 
to  go  into  the  open  labor  market,  as  a  graduate,  and 
compete  with  hundreds  of  others  for  a  strictly  business 
position;  nor  has  he  been  an  employer  in  strictly 
commercial  lines.  No  man  can  be  fully  competent  to 
understand,  or  to  give  reliable  advice  upon,  the  subject 
before  us  who  never  has  had  actual  business  experience 
either  as  employer  or  employee. 

It  is  the  hard-fisted  business  men  against  whom  the 
college  graduate  has  to  run  if  he  wishes  to  succeed  in 
the  commercial  world,  and  I  regard  them  as  the  only 
men  to  whom  you  can  look  for  any  tangible  and  satis- 
factory information  on  the  subject.  If  the  subject 
interests  you,  I  should  advise  you  to  read  and  weigh 
carefully  what  these  men  have  to  say.  I  think  that  in 
striving  to  settle  this  question  you  will  find  a  great 
many  stumbling-blocks  in  the  form  of  false  and  mis- 
leading statements  from  various  classes  of  people. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      49 

Even  the  replies  of  business  men,  as  shown  in  the 
following  pages,  are  often  so  indefinite  as  to  be  of  no 
value  for  my  purpose.  No  dependence  can  be  placed 
upon  any  of  them  who  fail  to  make  their  practice  con- 
sistent with  their  theories.  The  student  who  should 
be  influenced  by  their  letters  to  go  to  college  in  the 
expectation  that  he  would  be  graduated  into  a  good 
business  position,  would  find  out  too  late  that  he  had 
been  woefully  deceived  by  some  of  them. 

COPY  OF  LETTER  SENT  OUT  TO  ONE  HUNDRED 
BUSINESS  MEN. 

The  utility  of  an  academic  education  for  young  men 
who  have  to  earn  their  own  living  and  who  expect 
to  pursue  a  commercial  life. 

Dear  Sir: 

I  am  preparing  a  paper  on  the  above  subject,  and 
as  I  am  desirous  of  ascertaining  what  the  facts  actu- 
ally show  with  regard  to  the  value  of  such  education 
to  young  men  who  take  up  a  commercial  life,  I  am 
sending  this  letter  to  a  number  of  the  leading  and  rep- 
resentative men  in  various  lines  of  business. 

Please  bear  in  mind  that  this  inquiry  has  reference 
to  whether  or  not  this  education  is  a  help  to  the  success 
of  such  young  men  from  a  COMMERCIAL  STANDPOINT 
ONLY. 

This  subject,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance, has  been  theorized  upon  too  long.  I  am  now 
endeavoring,  in  what  I  believe  to  be  a  straightforward, 
businesslike  way,  to  get  at  its  real  status,  and  I  feel  it  is 
due  to  the  young  men  of  this  country  who  contemplate 
taking  a  college  course  that  those  who  have  practical 


50      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

ideas  about  the  matter  should  assist  in  its  solution  by 
answering  these  questions  with  great  care. 

If  any  have  theories  regarding  it  that  they  are  not 
acting  upon  in  their  own  business,  there  is  no  objection 
to  their  stating  them  at  the  close  of  their  letter,  but 
what  I  am  particularly  desirous  of  obtaining  is  a  reply 
to  my  questions. 

The  persons  I  am  aiming  to  reach  are  those  who 
employ  the  help  and  have  made  a  study  of  the  subject, 
and  should  this  letter  get  into  the  hands  of  others,  I 
would  request  that  they  refer  it  to  the  one  in  their 
establishment  best  qualified  to  furnish  the  desired 
information. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  inquiry  does  not 
have  reference  to  the  effect  of  education  upon  particu- 
larly bright  boys,  but  simply  the  general  run  of  them. 
Neither  is  consideration  to  be  given  to  any  regret 
which  some  especially  successful  men  may  feel  because 
of  not  having  received  more  education.  These  matters 
do  not  come  within  the  range  of  this  investigation. 

Thanking  you  in  advance  for  your  attention  to  this 
request,  I  am  Yours  truly, 

R.  T.  CRANE. 

THE  QUESTIONS  ASKED. 

1.  Have  you  any  college  men  among  your  employees? 

2.  If  so,  what  proportion  are  they  of  your  entire  force 

of  the  same  class,  or  of  all  classes  of  help  in 
which  such  persons  would  likely  be  utilized? 

3.  [a]     In   selecting   help,   do  you    give   preference   to 

college  men? 
[&]     Or  do  you  avoid  them? 

4.  If  you   favor  such  men,  is   it  your  experience  that 

they  make  better  help  than  persons  of  about  the 
same  caliber  who  have  no  college  education  — 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      51 

that  is,  on  account  of  having  received  such  edu- 
cation ? 

[a]  Do  they  show  greater  mental  ability? 

[b]  Do  they  advance  more  rapidly? 

[c]  Are  they  generally  of  better  character? 

5-  [a]  If  you  believe  that  the  mental  training  which  a 
young  man  receives  in  college  tends  to 
improve  him  and  make  him  more  valuable 
to  you  in  your  business,  have  you  made  a 
practice,  when  seeking  employees,  of  apply- 
ing to  the  heads  of  colleges  for  informa- 
tion concerning  students  about  to  graduate, 
and  selecting  help  from  those  whom  they 
might  recommend? 
[b]  If  not,  why? 

(6th,  7th  and  8th  stricken  out.) 

9-  Do  you  consider  that  there  is  need  of  more  than  a 
grammar-school  education  in  a  general  business 
life? 

10.  Will  not  the  work  and  experience  that  a  young  man 

obtains  in  any  line  of  business  develop  the  men- 
tal qualities  required  in  that  business  fully  as 
much  as  would  a  course  in  college? 

11.  Estimating  that  it  costs  in  the  neighborborhood  of 

$5,000  to  go  through  college,  would  you  advise 
a  young  man  who  had  only  this  amount  of 
money,  to  spend  it  for  a  college  education? 

12.  If  you  favor  those  who  have  had  a  college  educa- 

tion, then  take  the  case  of  two  young  men  of 
equal  age  and  mental  caliber,  one  of  whom 
(having  had  simply  a  grammar-school  educa- 
tion) starts  in  business  and  the  other  goes  to 
college.  At  the  time  the  latter  leaves  college 
(assuming  that  the  other  were  then  worth  $1,200 
a  year  to  you),  if  it  were  possible  to  make  a 
twenty-year  contract  with  each  of  these  young 
men  for  his  services,  how  much  more  would  you 
be  willing  to  pay  the  college  man  for  the  twenty 
years  ? 


52      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

(It  should  be  remembered  that  the  first  young 
man  has  had  about  eight  years'  experience  in  the 
business  at  the  time  the  latter  leaves  college.) 
13.  Can  you  give  me  the  names  of  any  business  men 
who  are  large  employers  of  this  class  of  help, 
and  whose  opinion  upon  this  subject  would  be 
valuable  ? 

Some  of  the  replies  from  business  men  were  short 
and  clear-cut,  and  these  are  given  in  full.  But  in 
others  the  writers  introduced  so  many  conditions  and 
complications  that  to  quote  their  letters  in  full  would 
be  most  confusing,  and  in  order  to  avoid  this  I  have 
given  simply  a  brief  synopsis  of  their  answers. 

THE  REPLIES  AND  CERTAIN  DEDUCTIONS. 

MR.  M.  B.  WALLACE, 

Secretary  of  Samuel  Cupples  Wooden  Ware  Company, 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Instead  of  quoting  Mr.  Wallace's  answers  to  the 
various  questions,  I  give  a  copy  of  the  letter  received 
from  him,  as  this  seems  to  express  his  views  more 
clearly : 

Your  circular  letter  of  September  5  has  been  re- 
ceived, and  I  take  pleasure  in  answering  your  inquiries 
on  the  subject  of  education  of  young  men,  and  in  further 
explaining  my  views  on  this  subject  will  say  that  the 
greatest  difficulty  I  have  had  in  employing  college  men 
has  been  that,  while  they  say  when  they  want  employ- 
ment that  they  are  anxious  to  get  down  at  the  bottom  of 
the  ladder  and  work  their  way  up,  still  if  they  do  not 
find  themselves  advanced  more  rapidly  than  is  consistent 
with  either  good  business  or  fairness  to  the  other 
employees,  who  are  in  all  probability  just  as  capable  as 
they  are,  they  become  dissatisfied,  and  do  not  think  they 
are  getting  along  fast  enough. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       53 

The  mistake  most  of  them  make  is  that  they  have  an 
idea  they  are  smarter  and  are  above  the  average  class  of 
employees,  which  immediately  places  them  at  a  disad- 
vantage, as  the  feeling,  of  course,  is  promptly  resented  by 
the  other  employees,  and,  in  whatever  way  they  can,  they 
make  it  harder  for  the  college  man  to  get  along. 

As  a  general  proposition,  I  would  prefer  not  to  have 
a  college  man,  unless  I  was  satisfied  that  it  was  necessary 
for  him  to  work  and  that  he  would  not  become  dissatis- 
fied too  soon  and  want  to  change  because  he  was  not 
getting  along  fast  enough. 

Your  twelfth  inquiry  is  one  that  is,  to  my  mind,  very 
hard  to  answer,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  I  or  anybody 
else  could  even  make  a  fair  guess  at  which  would  be  the 
more  valuable  man  of  the  two  at  the  end  of  twenty  years. 
My  impression,  however,  is  that,  if  the  young  man  was 
doing  his  work  in  a  thoroughly  satisfactory  manner,  I 
would  prefer  him  rather  than  to  take  the  risk  on  the  latter. 

In  summing  up  the  whole  situation,  the  college  man, 
to  my  mind,  is  only  a  desirable  employee  when  he  is,  as 
a  few  college  men  are,  conscientious,  hard-working,  and 
willing  to  get  down  at  the  bottom  and  stay  there  for  a 
sufficient  length  of  time  to  work  his  way  up. 

He  gives  the  company's  proportion  of  college  men 
as  about  five  per  cent. 

MR.  J.  J.  DAU, 

Vice-President  of  Reid,  Murdoch  &  Company, 
Chicago,  III. 

Instead  of  answering  the  specific  questions,   Mr. 
Dau  writes  the  following  letter : 

Referring  to  your  recent  inquiry  upon  the  subject  of 
university  or  higher  education,  we  beg  to  say  that,  per- 
haps singularly  enough,  there  has  never  been  a  college 
graduate  at  work  in  our  forces.  As  far  as  expedient, 
we  begin  with  boys  at  the  age  of  sixteen  and  train  them 
gradually  to  the  field  for  which  they  show  most  efficiency. 
When  employing  a  person  later  in  life,  it  is  naturally  for 


54      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

certain  duties  in  which  he  must  have  acquired  training 
and  experience  elsewhere;  but  even  then,  and  with  all 
due  respect,  we  obtain  better  results  three  times  out  of 
four  from  a  man  who  has  gained  his  knowledge  in  our 
own  house.  For  a  young  man  of  more  than  average 
ability,  we  are  in  favor  of  the  best  education  and  plenty 
of  it,  but  as  you  go  down  the  scale  the  situation  alters, 
and  sometimes,  as  the  saying  is,  "  a  good  shoemaker  is 
spoiled  to  make  a  poor  preacher." 

Mr.  Dau  has  the  correct  idea.  Starting  with  the 
boy  and  making  your  own  help  is  the  only  sensible  way 
of  running  a  business. 

MR.  F.  H.  PEABODY, 
Of  Kidder,  Peabody  &  Company,  Boston. 

The  chance  of  getting  himself  successfully  established 
in  business,  seems  to  me  better  for  a  young  man  who 
goes  into  a  business  establishment  on  graduating  from 
school,  say  at  the  age  of  seventeen  or  eighteen,  than  that 
of  a  man  who  spends  the  four  years  from  seventeen  to 
twenty-one  in  college,  and  the  chances  of  being  efficient 
up  to  a  certain  point  seem  to  me  better  than  those  of  the 
college  student.  Coming  to  the  higher  grade  of  work,  the 
chances  seem  to  me  about  equal. 

Probably  the  management  of  our  railroads  illustrate 
as  high  a  grade  as  any  of  business  and  executive  ability, 
and  the  greatest  managers  of  railroads  in  this  country 
are  men  who,  I  believe,  never  had  any  college  education. 
Edgar  Thomson,  President  Roberts,  Cornelius  Vanderbilt, 
James  F.  Joy,  C.  P.  Huntington,  Mr.  Plant  and  James  J. 
Hill  are  instances,  and  Mr.  Schwab,  of  the  Steel  Trust, 
I  believe  to  be  another  in  a  different  line. 

But,  if  a  man  has  the  qualities  which  carry  him  up  to 
the  top  in  business,  the  college  education  seems  to  me 
likely  to  give  him  a  line  of  valuable  acquaintances,  more 
tact  in  dealing  with  his  fellow  men,  and  more  capacity 
for  enjoying  the  intellectual  part  of  life,  than  if  he  had 
grown  up  without  it. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       55 

MR.  EDWARD  TOWNSEND, 
Cashier  Importers'  &  Traders'  National  Bank,  New  York. 

I  quote  from  his  letter  as  follows: 

Of  our  entire  force  of  over  one  hundred  clerks  we 
think  we  have  but  two  college  graduates,  and  they  passed 
through  one  of  the  smaller  colleges  many  years  ago,  and 
finished  the  course  at  a  very  early  age. 

Our  method,  when  we  need  to  increase  our  force,  has 
been  for  many  years  to  take  in  boys  just  from  school, 
of  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  without  any  previous  busi- 
ness experience,  and  train  them  in  our  own  methods,  pro- 
moting them  from  time  to  time  as  the  opportunity  presents 
itself.  This  plan  has  worked  very  satisfactorily  with  us. 
We  have  found  that  the  best  material  for  our  purpose 
has  come  from  the  middle-class  young  men  who  have  to 
work  to  make  a  living.  Other  things  being  equal,  we,  of 
course,  in  selecting  young  men,  take  into  consideration 
the  education  they  have  received,  but  at  the  age  they 
enter  our  employ  they  are  usually  too  young  to  have  com- 
pleted a  college  course, 

MR.  JAMES  B.  FORGAN, 
President  of  the  First  National  Bank,  Chicago. 

Mr.  Forgan  takes  the  ground  that :  "  More  depends 
on  the  man  than  his  early  education.  A  man's  school- 
ing is,  after  all,  the  smallest  part  of  his  education,"  and 
it  seems  to  be  his  rule  to  look  to  the  man  rather  than 
to  his  education. 

He  has  taken  considerable  pains  to  ascertain  the 
proportion  of  college  men  in  his  bank,  and  finds  that 
it  is  from  three  and  one-half  to  five  and  one-half  per 
cent. 

He  says  that  they  do  not  give  preference  to  nor  do 
they  avoid  college  men ;  that  they  do  not  find  that  such 
men  show  greater  mental  ability  or  advance  more 


56      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

rapidly  than  persons  of  about  the  same  caliber  who 
have  not  received  a  college  education. 

While  his  answer  to  the  question,  "  Will  not  the 
work  and  experience  a  young  man  obtains  in  any  line 
of  business  develop  the  mental  qualities  required  in 
that  business  fully  as  much  as  would  a  course  in  col- 
lege ?  "  is  in  the  affirmative,  and  while  he  also  says  that 
he  would  not  advise  a  young  man  who  had  only  $5,000 
to  spend  it  for  a  college  education,  if  he  intended  to 
enter  upon  a  business  career,  he  still  thinks  that  there 
is  need  of  more  than  a  grammar-school  education  in  a 
general  business  life. 

MR.  ROSWELL  MILLER, 

Chairman  of  the  Board  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  Railway  Company,  New  York. 

Mr.  Miller's  answers  to  the  questions  all  show 
that  he  is  very  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  a  college 
education  is  of  no  value  to  a  man  in  a  business  life. 

In  closing  he  makes  this  remark : 
"  I  spent  one  year  in  college,  and  I  consider  it  for- 
tunate that  it  was  not  more." 

MR.  W.  F.  MERRILL, 

First  Vice-President  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven  & 
Hartford  Railroad  Company,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Mr.  Merrill  kindly  answered  the  questions  and  also 
wrote  several  long  letters,  from  which  I  quote  the  fol- 
lowing : 

It  has  been  my  experience  that  men  with  a  college  edu- 
cation make  better  help  than  men  of  about  the  same 
caliber  who  have  not  had  that  advantage,  when  they  get 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      57 

to  a  point  where  their  experience  warrants  putting  them 
into  advanced  positions,  and  that  it  does  not  take  them 
so  long  a  time  to  get  to  a  point  where  they  can  be  safely 
promoted.  A  college  education  gives  a  young  man  habits 
of  study  and  application  which  are  invaluable.  He  learns 
how  to  use  his  brains  to  better  advantage  than  one  who 
has  not  had  that  training.  You  might  just  as  well  say 
that  an  apprenticeship  is  of  no  value  to  a  man  who  is 
going  to  follow  a  particular  trade  as  to  say,  in  the  case 
of  a  man  who  is  going  to  use  his  brains,  it  is  not  an 
advantage  to  him  that  he  should  learn  how  to  use  them 
logically  by  study.  Brains  are  capable  of  development 
the  same  as  muscles,  and  there  is  nothing  that  I  know  of 
that  will  develop  brains  any  faster  than  systematic  study. 
A  well-trained  mind  thinks  quicker  and  reaches  results 
more  speedily  and  more  accurately.  My  experience  is 
that  educated  men  show  greater  mental  ability  for  the 
reason  that  I  have  given  above ;  that  they  can  advance 
more  rapidly,  because  they  learn  how  to  take  advantage 
of  the  knowledge  of  others  better,  and  because  their  edu- 
cation broadens  their  intellect.  It  also  stimulates  ambi- 
tion and  strengthens  character.  I  can  not  see  why  the 
broadening  of  a  man's  mind,  even  along  general  lines, 
should  not  help  a  person  in  a  business  career  just  as  much 
as  a  professional  one.  The  training  and  study  of  a  col- 
lege education  simply  lays  the  foundation  upon  which  a 
young  man,  who  afterward  goes  into  life,  has  to  build  the 
superstructure,  and  surely  a  college  education  strengthens 
that  foundation  to  a  very  great  degree.  Of  course,  a  rail- 
road prefers  to  employ  men  who  have  taken  the  course 
laid  down  in  the  technical  colleges,  but  an  academic 
course  is  exceedingly  valuable  to  any  young  man  who  has 
a  desire  to  rise  above  the  average  level. 

Mr.  Merrill  goes  on  to  say  that  he  does  not  think 
college  men  have  been  given  an  equal  chance  in  large 
business  concerns.  I  requested  him  to  ascertain  the 
number  of  college  men  he  had  among  the  station 
agents  on  one  of  the  main  divisions  of  his  road,  to 
which  he  replied  that  they  had  in  the  neighborhood 


58      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

of  nine  hundred  stations,  and  he  was  quite  sure  that 
none  of  the  station  agents  was  a  college  graduate. 

The  station  agency  of  a  good-sized  town  is  a  good 
place  to  use  men  of  ability,  and  it  is  strange  that  it 
has  not  occurred  to  Mr.  Merrill  to  try  college  grad- 
uates in  such  positions. 

MR.  LUCIUS  TUTTLE, 

President  of  the  Boston  &  Maine  Railroad  Company, 
Boston,  Mass. 

Mr.  Tuttle  does  not  answer  the  questions  in  detail, 
but  writes  the  following  letter : 

We  have  college  men  among  our  employees,  but  I  am 
unable  to  tell  you  what  proportion  they  constitute  of  our 
entire  force  of  all  classes  of  help. 

In  selecting  help  we  should  give  preference  to  a  college- 
educated  man,  all  other  things  being  equal,  and  we  have 
no  prejudice  against  them. 

As  a  general  thing,  we  find  college-bred  men  capable 
of  reaching  a  higher  standard  in  the  service  in  shorter 
time  than  those  who  lack  the  mental  training  that  goes 
with  education,  provided  they  are  willing  to  take  hold  in 
a  subordinate  place  and  work  as  others  are  willing  to 
work  who  have  not  had  their  advantages.  They,  of 
course,  show  greater  mental  ability  and  advance  more 
rapidly;  and  so  far  as  we  select  them  they  are,  I  think, 
generally  of  better  character. 

MR.  GEORGE  B.  HARRIS, 

President  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy 
Railroad  Company,  Chicago,  III. 

Mr.  Harris  made  a  very  full  reply  to  the  questions, 
but  misunderstood  the  particular  line  of  my  inquiry, 
and  got  a  college  education  mixed  up  with  other  lines 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      59 

of  education,  so  that  a  number  of  his  answers  do  not 
apply. 

In  reply  to  the  question  whether  he  gives  preference 
to  college  men,  he  says :  "  We  select  those  applicants 
who,  all  things  considered,  appear  to  be  the  most 
desirable." 

He  is  not  so  sure  that  college  men  show  greater 
mental  ability,  but  it  is  his  impression  that  they  are 
better  trained  and  that  they  rise  more  rapidly  than 
persons  who  have  not  attended  college. 

He  says  they  have  some  college  men  among  their 
employees,  but  that  he  can  not  give  the  proportion,  as 
no  tally  has  been  kept. 

In  one  of  his  letters  he  makes  this  statement : 

All  things  being  equal,  it  is  obvious  that  education  is 
beneficial  alike  to  employer  and  employee.  Many  men  of 
unusually  strong  character  and  ability  and  little  educa- 
tion, realizing  their  disadvantages,  sometimes  overcome 
them  by  diligence  and  pass  well-educated  but  indolent 
men  in  the  business  race.  This  may  mislead  some  people. 
There  is  no  doubt,  in  my  mind,  that  a  good  education  is 
desirable  and  more  necessary  now  than  ever  before. 

MR.  JOHN  C.  WELLING, 

Vice-President  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company, 
Chicago,  III. 

My  inquiry  was  first  sent  to  the  president  of  this 
road,  Mr.  Stuyvesant  Fish,  whose  answers  showed 
that  he  was  in  favor  of  college  graduates ;  but,  think- 
ing more  detailed  information  might  be  obtained  from 
Mr.  Welling,  a  copy  of  the  letter  was  sent  to  him, 
and  the  following  is  the  substance  of  his  reply. 

He  thinks  that :  "  If  young  men  are  studious,  the 
mental  training  received  in  college  strengthens  them  " ; 


60      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

that  college  men  "  are  fitted  to  fill  more  important 
positions,  and  can  frequently  be  promoted  more  rapidly 
than  men  who  have  not  had  like  advantages  " ;  and 
that  "  they  are  apt  to  be  broader  and  stronger  men  and 
so  better  men." 

In  answer  to  the  question  whether  he  gives  pref- 
erence to  college  men,  he  says :  "  In  some  positions, 
yes ;  in  most  positions,  no." 

Notwithstanding  his  rather  broad  statement  in 
favor  of  college  education,  he  says  the  proportion  of 
college  men  in  their  employ  is  very  small,  and  that  they 
do  not  apply  to  colleges  when  in  need  of  help,  the 
reason  for  this  being :  "It  has  never  occurred  to  us  to 
do  so;  besides,  we  always  have  numerous  applications 
from  young  men  fresh  from  college  for  positions  of 
one  sort  or  other." 

He  believes  that  there  is  need  of  more  than  a 
grammar-school  education  in  general  business  life,  and 
says  that  "  the  necessity  increases  as  the  years  go  by." 

He  thinks  that,  as  a  rule,  the  work  and  experience 
a  young  man  obtains  in  any  line  of  business  will  not 
develop  the  mental  qualities  required  in  that  business 
as  much  as  would  a  course  in  college. 

He  "  would  not  advise  the  average  young  man  " 
(which,  of  course,  is  the  sort  of  person  to  which  this 
investigation  applies)  "whose  means  are  limited  to 
$5,000,  to  spend  it  all  in  taking  a  regular  academic 
course  in  college." 

In  reply  to  my  subsequent  inquiry  as  to  the  num- 
ber of  college  men  among  the  station  agents  on  one 
of  the  main  divisions  of  his  road,  he  says  that  out 
of  199,  eight  took  a  partial  course  in  college,  and  nine 
took  a  full  college  course. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       61 

MR.  E.  P.  RIPLEY, 

President  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railway 
System,  Chicago,  III. 

Mr.  Ripley's  replies  seem  to  refer  mainly  to  men 
having  a  technical  education,  and  for  that  line  of  work 
he  favors  a  college  course.  He  does  not  answer  any 
of  the  questions  directly,  and  I  have  no  means  of  judg- 
ing whether  he  is  consistent  in  this  matter  or  not. 

With  regard  to  the  proportion  of  college  men  in 
their  employ,  he  says :  "  We  have  quite  a  number  of 
college  graduates  among  our  35,000  or  more  em- 
ployees, but,  of  course,  they  constitute  a  very  small 
percentage  of  the  whole." 

It  seems  to  me  that  if  he  were  consistent  he  would 
have  made  a  special  effort  to  give  more  information  on 
this  point. 

In  his  letter  he  says : 

I  am  of  the  opinion  that  college  graduates  are  better 
equipped  for  general  work,  mental  caliber  and  habits 
being  the  same,  than  noncollegiates. 

Their  mental  processes  are  more  likely  to  be  accurate ; 
they  have  generally  a  clearer  perception  of  the  fitness  of 
things,  and  can  meet  the  public  and  deal  with  other  men 
upon  rather  a  better  plane  than  a  man  who  has  not  been 
through  college. 

Having  thus  answered  your  questions  as  put,  let  me 
hasten  to  say  that  I  am  by  no  means  of  the  opinion  that 
every  young  man  should  be  sent  to  college.  While,  as 
above  stated,  I  would  ordinarily  give  a  college  graduate 
the  preference,  yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  four 
years  spent  in  college,  if  spent  in  practical  work,  may 
result  at  the  end  of  that  time  in  giving  a  practical  knowl- 
edge of  a  given  business,  which  is  better  for  the  purpose 
of  that  particular  business  than  a  college  education,  and 
that  all  young  men  are  not  students,  and  many  do  not 
derive  much  benefit  from  a  college  course. 


62      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

Admitting  that  four  years  in  business  is  better  than 
four  years  in  college,  what  about  eight  years,  in  which 
time  a  young  man  could  learn  the  railroad  business 
thoroughly  ? 

MR.  MARVIN  HUGHITT, 

President  of  the  Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway  Company, 
Chicago,  III, 

Mr.  Hughitt  says  he  can  not  reply  with  accuracy 
to  my  questions,  not  having  the  necessary  information, 
and  it  is  evident  that  this  matter  is  one  which  has  not 
interested  him,  nor  received  his  attention. 

I  quote  from  his  letter  as  follows : 

The  selection  of  help  is  made  with  regard  to  the  appli- 
cant's competency  for  the  position. 

I  may  say  generally,  however,  that  it  is  my  conviction 
that  a  young  man  can  not  get  too  good  an  education. 
Whether  it  is  to  the  disadvantage  of  a  young  man  to 
devote  the  time  necessary  in  obtaining  a  collegiate  edu- 
cation, in  preference  to  going  at  once  into  railroad  or 
other  work,  depends  to  a  very  great  degree,  if  not  wholly, 
upon  the  "  make-up  "  of  the  young  man.  And  in  the  con- 
sideration of  the  advisability  of  the  one  course  or  the 
other,  this  question  of  the  kind  of  "  timber  "  a  young  man 
may  be  becomes  a  most  important  factor,  in  my  judg- 
ment, in  reaching  a  conclusion,  considered  both  with  re- 
gard to  his  school  life  and  to  his  discharge  of  the  duties 
pertaining  to  whatever  line  of  work  he  may  undertake. 

MR.  E.  C.  SIMMONS, 
Of  the  Simmons  Hardware  Company,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Mr.  Simmons  writes  at  considerable  length,  and 
when  I  say  that  he  expresses  himself  very  strongly 
on  every  phase  of  the  question  as  being  in  favor  of 
college  education  for  business  men,  it  is  stating  his 
position  as  exactly  as  if  I  quoted  his  entire  letter. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      63 

I  will  simply  say  further  that  he  states  that  a  very 
small  proportion  of  their  force  are  college  men,  his 
reason  being :  "  Comparatively  speaking,  there  are  but 
few  people  in  St.  Louis  who  send  their  sons  to  college, 
and  the  number  applying  for  places  is  very  limited." 

His  correspondence  develops  the  fact  that  he  has 
been  of  his  present  opinion  with  regard  to  college  men 
for  only  about  three  years. 

MR.  A.  C.  HYMAN, 

President  of  Hibbard,  Spencer,  Bartlett  &  Company, 
Chicago,  III. 

Among  his  answers  to  the  questions  Mr.  Bartlett 
says: 

First,  considering  what  we  deem  natural  qualifications, 
we  give  college-bred  men  the  preference. 

We  think  college  discipline  a  benefit.  While  they  may 
not  show  greater  mental  ability,  they  do  show  mental 
training;  as  a  consequence  they  advance  more  rapidly. 

Although  his  letters  seem  to  indicate  that  he  is 
very  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  college  education 
is  of  value  to  young  men,  he  apparently  has  not  fol- 
lowed his  theory  in  practice,  for  he  says  that  they  have 
few  college  men  in  their  employ,  the  proportion  being 
very  small. 

MR.  F.  C.  SMINK, 

V ice-President  and  General  Manager  of  the  Reading  Iron 
Company,  Reading,  Pa. 

Mr.  Smink  does  not  answer  the  questions  specif- 
ically, but  writes  a  long  letter,  from  which  I  quote  as 
follows : 

I  am  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  what  Chauncey  M. 
Depew  (who  has  written  and  expressed  his  views  at  more 
or  less  length  upon  this  subject)  is  quoted  as  saying  is 


64      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

absolutely  true,  to-wit :  "  Any  young  man  equipped  with 
a  college  education  increases  his  chances  of  making  a 
living  and  of  a  more  rapid  promotion  in  any  line  of  busi- 
ness, two  hundred  to  three  hundred  per  cent,  given  that 
he  possess  the  requisite  amount  of  industry,  energy  and 
persistent  application  that  characterize  every  successful 
business  man." 

We  have  comparatively  few  college-bred  men  em- 
ployed in  the  many  varied  industries  under  my  direc- 
tion and  control,  and  their  proportion  to  the  whole  is 
almost  infinitesimal.  Yet,  in  all  new  applications  I  invari- 
ably give  preferential  hearing  to  those  graduated  from 
some  academic  or  collegiate  institution.  In  the  clerical 
or  office  field  I  now  make  it  a  rule  that  none  be  engaged, 
even  down  to  the  grade  of  office  boy,  who  shall  not  at 
least  be  possessed  of  a  high-school  education.  *  *  * 

One  of  the  difficulties  often  met  with  in  considering 
the  applications  of  college  graduates,  even  though  they 
are  poor  and  obliged  to  earn  their  own  living,  is  that  so 
many  are  unwilling  to  undergo  that  apprenticeship  or 
preliminary  training  in  acquiring  the  details  of  any  serv- 
ice which  is  so  necessary  to  fit  them  for  higher  offices. 
The  drudgery  and  toil  involved  they  seem  to  regard  as 
menial,  and  generally  want  to  start  in  on  a  higher  rung 
of  the  ladder  than  their  qualifications  entitle  them  to. 
For  this  reason  I  think  we  are  inclined  to  give  prefer- 
ence, in  our  selections  for  advancement,  to  the  men  who 
rise  from  the  ranks  and  who  have  become  familiar  with 
all  the  degrees  and  stages  of  manufacture,  or  have  mas- 
tered the  details  of  offices  and  counting-rooms,  rather 
than  to  the  men  whose  mental  attributes,  by  reason  of 
their  higher  education,  may  appear  more  brilliant  and 
promising. 

Whether  these  lofty  and  erroneous  ideas  are  incul- 
cated by  present  methods  of  training  or  the  surrounding 
influences  of  our  educational  institutions  I  shall  not  at- 
tempt to  say,  but  be  that  as  it  may,  I  think  it  has  been 
clearly  established  that  in  all  branches  of  finance,  com- 
merce or  manufacture  the  value  of  a  college  education 
invariably  asserts  itself. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      65 

MR.  T.  J.  HYMAN, 

Secretary  and  Treasurer,  Illinois  Steel  Company, 
Chicago,  III. 

Specific  answers  are  not  given  by  Mr.  Hyman,  but 
in  his  letter  he  takes  the  view  that  the  scope  of  my 
inquiry  is  too  narrow. 

He  seems  to  think  that  for  ordinary  lines  of  busi- 
ness or  office  work  a  grammar-school  education  is 
sufficient,  but  that  for  more  advanced  positions  a  col- 
lege education  is  essential,  and  that  it  would  pay  a 
young  man  to  spend  the  time  and  money  necessary  to 
acquire  it. 

However,  for  the  class  of  men  referred  to  in  this 
investigation,  he  makes  the  following  suggestion: 

In  my  own  judgment,  the  ideal  course  for  a  young 
man  who  is  dependent  upon  his  own  efforts,  with  the 
facilities  that  are  now  offered  for  study  at  home,  is  for 
him  to  engage  in  his  chosen  line  of  business  and  take  up 
a  course  of  reading  or  study  whereby  he  can  gain  tech- 
nical and  practical  knowledge  at  the  same  time,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  given  period  of  years  he  will  be  worth 
more  to  his  employers  than  after  the  same  number  of 
years'  study  in  college. 

MR.  CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK, 

President  of  the  McCormick  Harvesting  Machine  Company, 
Chicago,  III 

Mr.  McCormick  did  not  answer  the  questions  in 
detail,  but  wrote  two  or  three  brief  letters,  from  which 
I  quote  the  following: 

In  general,  I  may  say  that  we  have  many  college  men 
among  our  employees,  but  they  would  form  only  a  small 
proportion  of  those  engaged  in  similar  work.  In  selecting 


66      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

help  we  certainly  would  not  avoid  college  men,  but  would 
rather  give  them  the  preference,  believing  that  they  would 
make  quicker  progress  and  show  a  better  all-around 
ability  than  those  who  had  not  had  the  advantages  of  a 
college  education. 

With  the  same  endowment  and  under  the  same  en- 
vironment and  with  the  same  opportunities,  I  should 
expect  a  college  man  to  win  over  the  man  who  had  not 
had  such  advantages. 


MR.  FRANKLIN  MACVEAGH, 

Of  Franklin  MacVeagh  &  Company,  Chicago,  III. 

In  reply  to  the  question  whether  college  men  make 
better  help  than  persons  of  about  the  same  caliber  who 
have  not  had  a  college  education,  he  says  that,  "  other 
things  being  equal,  a  college  education  is  an  advan- 
tage "  —  same  old  chestnut ! 

He  thinks  college  graduates  do  not  show  greater 
mental  ability ;  "  only  more  mental  discipline,  suppos- 
ing natural  abilities  the  same,"  and  that  they  advance 
more  rapidly. 

In  reply  to  the  question  whether  he  considers  that 
there  is  need  of  more  than  a  grammar-school  education 
in  a  general  business  life,  he  says :  "  I  do  not  think 
you  can  get  too  much  education  in  business  life." 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  foregoing  an- 
swers would  indicate  that  he  rather  favors  a  college 
education,  he  states  that  the  proportion  of  college  men 
in  their  employ  is  "  very  small  indeed,"  and  that  he 
does  not  give  such  men  preference  when  selecting  help. 
Therefore,  his  preference  for  college  education  falls 
flat 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       67 


MR.  A.  ANTISDEL, 

General  Manager  of  the  American  Express  Company, 
Chicago,  III. 

The  letter  from  Mr.  Antisdel  seems  to  state  his 
position  so  clearly  that  I  quote  it  instead  of  giving  his 
specific  answers  to  the  questions : 

This  company  employs  comparatively  few  college  men, 
and  for  the  reason  that  we  employ  men  of  a  younger  age 
who  have  finished  their  course  in  common  or  high  schools, 
and  such  men  who  show  an  aptitude  are  promoted  from 
time  to  time,  and  most  of  the  important  positions  of  this 
company  to-day  are  held  by  men  who  have  not  had  the 
benefit  of  a  college  education,  and  who  have  risen  from 
the  ranks.  While  we  have  but  few  college  men  in  our 
service,  I  believe  the  employees  of  the  American  Express 
Company  are,  as  a  rule,  of  a  very  high  standard  and  will 
compare  favorably  with  men  occupying  like  positions  in 
any  other  class  of  business.  When  we  have  occasion  to 
take  into  our  service  new  men  of  legal  age,  we  should, 
everything  else  being  equal,  give  the  preference  to  the 
college  men,  for  the  reason  that  I  believe  their  minds 
are  better  trained,  and  they  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the 
business  more  rapidly  and  more  comprehensively  than 
men  who  have  not  had  a  college  training. 

As  to  the  character  and  habits  of  college  men,  I  do 
not  think  they  are  any  better  than  the  class  of  men  em- 
ployed by  this  company,  and  the  principal  reason  why  I 
should  give  preference  to  college  men  is  that,  as  before 
stated,  their  minds  are  better  trained,  and  they  are  able 
to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  our  business  quicker  and  more 
comprehensively  than  men  of  limited  education,  and 
further,  such  college  men  have  the  capacity  to  expand 
and  grow  with  the  business  and  ultimately  be  qualified 
for  occupying  any  position  in  the  gift  of  the  company. 

In  his  answers  to  the  questions  he  states  that  he 
does  not  make  a  practice  of  applying  to  colleges  when 


68      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

in  need  of  help,  and  gives  as  a  reason  the  fact  that 
until  recently  he  has  not  given  the  subject  any  particu- 
lar attention. 

ARMOUR  &  COMPANY, 

Chicago,  III. 

The  person  replying  does  not  answer  the  questions 
specifically,  but  has  this  to  say  in  a  general  way : 

While  not  giving  especial  preference  to  college  men, 
we  feel  that  such  education,  when  coupled  with  energy, 
adaptability  in  special  directions,  with  other  qualifica- 
tions which  always  render  employees  desirable,  has  a  ten- 
dency to  add  greatly  to  general  efficiency.  *  *  *  In 
selections  for  positions  which  do  not  involve  expert  train- 
ing, we  do  not  give  preference  to  college  men,  as  such. 

MR.  D.  R.  KINGSLEY, 

Third  Vice-President  New  York  Life  Insurance  Company, 
New  York. 

He  says  he  is  unable  to  answer  the  questions,  but 
writes  in  a  general  way  as  follows : 

College-bred  men  do  not  enter  the  company's  service 
through  the  same  avenue  and  do  not  begin  at  the  same 
age,  and  there  is  almost  no  way  in  which  anything  like  a 
fair  comparison  can  be  instituted  between  the  two. 

We  neither  discriminate  in  favor  of  or  against  college- 
bred  men. 

Of  course,  among  the  men  who  enter  the  company's 
service  as  office  boys,  there  are  no  college-bred  men.  In 
the  nature  of  things  there  could  not  be.  These  men  make 
up  our  greatest  source  of  supply. 

We,  however,  engage  first  and  last  a  good  many  college- 
bred  men,  and  our  experience  with  them,  in  the  particu-  ' 
lar  line  of  work  they  are  set  to  do,  has  been  entirely 
satisfactory. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       69 


MR.  MILTON  H.  SMITH, 

President  of  the  Louisville  &  Nashville  Railroad 
Company,  Louisville. 

Mr.  Smith  writes  as  follows : 

I  am  not  in  a  position  to  reply  to  the  questions  pro- 
pounded, for  the  reason  that  this  company  fills  all  posi- 
tions in  the  service  by  promotion  of  employees ;  only  their 
fitness  for  the  position  in  view  being  taken  into  account. 


MR.  H.  B.  LEDYARD, 

President  of  the  Michigan  Central  Railroad  Company, 
Detroit,  Mich. 

The  writer  does  not  answer  the  questions.  He  puts 
special  stress,  however,  upon  the  scientific  course,  and 
does  not  give  his  views  regarding  an  academic  educa- 
tion. 

MR.  A.  S.  WEINSHEIMER, 
Secretary  of  The  Pullman  Company,  Chicago. 

In  reply,  Mr.  Weinsheimer  said : 

While  we  would  be  glad  to  be  of  service  to  you  in  this 
direction,  we  have  never  gathered  any  data  in  relation  to 
our  employees  of  the  character  which  you  mention,  and 
I  regret,  therefore,  that  it  would  not  be  practicable  for 
us  to  furnish  you  any  information  in  the  line  of  your 
investigation. 

MR.  A.  H.  WIGGIN, 

Vice-President  of  the  National  Park  Bank,  New  York. 

He  says  they  have  no  college  men  in  their  employ. 


70      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

MR.  W.  H.  LINCOLN, 
President  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Boston. 

The  writer  states  that  he  has  no  college  men  among 
his  employees;  that  he  prefers  to  take  younger  men. 

In  reply  to  the  question,  "  Will  not  the  work  and 
experience  that  a  young  man  obtains  in  any  line  of 
business  develop  the  mental  qualities  required  in  that 
business  fully  as  much  as  would  a  course  in  college  ?  " 
he  says :  "  Yes  —  especially  experience.  If  a  young 
man  is  ambitious,  he  will  cultivate  his  mind  in  various 
ways." 

MR.  FRANK  E.  PEABODY, 
Of  Kidder,  Peabody  &  Company,  Boston. 

Mr.  Peabody  says  he  is  unable  to  answer  the  ques- 
tions in  detail,  but  writes  a  letter,  from  which  we 
quote  as  follows: 

We  have  had  quite  a  number  of  college  men  among 
our  clerks;  the  number  at  present  is,  I  think,  eleven  out 
of  sixty-eight. 

Our  general  experience  with  them  has  been  that  they 
have  either  proved  exceptionally  efficient,  or  else,  finding 
themselves  unlikely  to  rise  rapidly,  have  left  us  volun- 
tarily. *  *  *  Most  of  the  college  men  at  present 
in  our  force  have  been  with  us  but  a  few  years. 

MR.  PERCY  STRAUS, 
With  R.  H.  Macy  &  Company,  New  York. 

The  writer  states  that  they  have  very  few  college 
men  among  their  employees,  but  does  not  give  the 
proportion. 

In  reply  to  the  question  whether  they  give  pref- 
erence to  college  men  when  selecting  help,  he  says: 
"  We  have  in  certain  instances." 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       71 

He  states  that  he  thinks  college  men  show  greater 
mental  ability  and  advance  more  rapidly  than  persons 
of  about  the  same  caliber  who  have  not  attended  col- 
lege. He  answers  in  the  negative  to  the  question, 
whether  the  work  and  experience  that  a  young  man 
receives  in  any  line  of  business  will  develop  the  men- 
tal qualities  required  in  that  business)  as  much  as 
would  a  course  in  college.  In  the  face  of  this,  he 
says  he  does  not  consider  that  there  is  need  of  more 
than  a  grammar-school  education  in  a  general  business 
life,  and  that  he  would  not  advise  a  young  man  who 
had  only  $5,000  to  spend  it  for  a  college  education. 


MR.  F.  N.  BREWER, 
Manager,  John  Wanamaker  Company,  Philadelphia. 

We  are  not  able  to  give  exact  information  covering 
our  entire  force,  but  in  certain  departments,  including 
those  in  which  retail  selling  of  goods  is  done,  the  Count- 
ing-room, Customers'  Accounts,  Auditing  and  Mail  Order, 
in  which  a  total  of  542  men  are  at  present  employed, 
twenty-six  are  found  to  have  passed  through  a  full  or 
partial  college  course.  The  other  departments,  such  as 
Delivery,  Packing-rooms,  etc.,  would  naturally  show  a 
smaller  proportion  of  college  men. 

The  third  question  (A  and  B)  does  not  consciously 
enter  into  the  consideration  of  employment.  No  doubt 
the  fact  of  a  college  course  would  lead  us  to  expect 
greater  intelligence  and  thus  weigh  in  favor  of  an  appli- 
cant, but  this  is  not  a  question  which  is  at  all  habitually 
considered. 

As  you  would  judge  from  the  reply  to  question  three, 
we  are  hardly  able  to  reply  to  question  four,  the  differ- 
ence, if  any,  between  college  men  and  others  not  having 
been  sufficiently  marked  in  our  experi-ence  to  have  im- 
pressed us. 


72      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

MR.  ANDREW  B.  COBB, 
Of  Stanton,  Converse  &  Company,  Boston. 

Mr.  Cobb  says  that  they  have  no  college  men  in 
their  employ,  and  that  they  prefer  high-school  boys. 
He  thinks  that :  "  As  a  rule,  men  out  of  college  are  no 
better  fitted  for  business  life,  if  as  well,  as  boys  from 
school,  and  they  have  to  lose  the  four  years  of  business 
training  at  a  time  when  boys  absorb  rules  and  ideas 
very  rapidly.  Boys  are  more  susceptible  to  training 
than  college  men." 

MR.  R.  M.  FAIR, 

Manager,  Marshall  Field  &•  Company  (Wholesale), 
Chicago,  III. 

Mr.  Fair's  answers  to  the  questions  all  show  that 
he  is  not  a  believer  in  college  men. 

He  states  that  the  proportion  of  college  men  in  their 
employ  is  five  per  cent. 

MR.  JOHN  V.  FARWELL,  JR., 

Treasurer  of  the  John  V.  Farwell  Company, 
Chicago,  III. 

Mr.  Farwell  says  that :  "  College  men  are  apt  to 
make  a  better  impression  with  the  better  class  of  mer- 
chants whom  they  have  as  customers,  while  perhaps 
not  as  good  with  the  average  country  merchant." 

He  thinks  "  they  show  greater  ability  in  deciding 
questions  and  in  making  sales  and  purchases,  and  on 
that  account  are  likely  to  advance  more  rapidly." 

He  does  not,  however,  appear  to  be  very  enthusi- 
astic on  the  subject,  for  in  reply  to  the  question, 
whether  the  work  and  experience  which  a  young  man 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       73 

obtains  in  any  line  of  business  will  develop  the  mental 
qualities  required  in  that  business  fully  as  much  as 
would  a  course  in  college,  he  says :  "  As  a  rule  it  will, 
considering  the  business  qualities  alone." 

He  also  states  that  their  experience  has  been  that 
the  graduates  of  country  high  schools,  with  a  year  or 
two  of  experience  in  the  retail  dry  goods  business, 
make  the  best  all-around  men  for  them. 

Replying  to  the  question,  whether  he  would  recom- 
mend a  young  man  with  only  $5,000  to  spend  it  for  a 
college  education,  he  says :  "  On  the  basis  of  a  money- 
making  success,  we  do  not  believe  we  would  so  advise." 

Their  proportion  of  college  men,  he  says,  is  about 
five  per  cent. 

MR.  W.  C  THORNE, 

General  Manager  of  Montgomery  Ward  &  Company, 
Chicago. 

Mr.  Thorne  says  that  the  proportion  of  college  men 
in  their  employ  is  about  ten  per  cent;  that  persons 
having  a  college  education  show  greater  mental  ability 
and  advance  more  rapidly  than  those  of  about  the  same 
caliber  who  have  not  attended  college.  He  does  not, 
however,  give  preference  to  college  men ;  in  fact,  he 
avoids  them,  except  in  the  few  cases  where  he  finds 
they  are  willing  to  begin  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder 
and  work  their  way  up. 

MR.  ALBERT  A.  SPRAGUE, 
President  of  Sprague,  Warner  &  Company,  Chicago. 

Mr.  Sprague  does  not  answer  the  questions  in  full, 
but  has  this  to  say : 

I  think  the  college  education  is  neither  a  drawback 
nor  an  advantage  in  a  commercial  life,  except  in  the 
greater  resources  it  gives  a  man. 


74      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

A  man's  success  depends  more  upon  himself  than  on 
his  education. 

He  thinks  that  the  college  men  who  go  into  com- 
mercial life  usually  show  greater  mental  ability  than 
men  without  such  education,  and  that  "  if  they  have 
the  perseverance  they  advance  more  rapidly." 

He  says  that  in  selecting  help  he  does  not  give 
preference  to  college  men,  nor  does  he  avoid  them; 
that  the  proportion  of  college  men  in  their  employ  is 
small. 

AMERICAN  SUGAR  REFINING  COMPANY, 
New  York. 

In  reply  they  state  that  they  have  no  college  men 
in  their  employ,  so  can  not  answer  the  questions. 

MR.  S.  NORVELL, 

President  of  Norvell-Shapleigh  Hardware  Company, 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 

The  writer  says  he  does  not  give  college  men  pref- 
erence, nor  does  he  avoid  them,  and  that  the  propor- 
tion of  such  men  in  their  employ  is  not  over  five  per 
cent.  He  thinks  they  do  not  show  greater  mental 
ability,  and  that  they  do  not  advance  more  rapidly. 

As  to  whether  there  is  need  of  more  than  a  gram- 
mar-school education  in  a  general  business  life,  he 
says: 

"  Yes,  if  a  man  reaches  the  higher-grade  positions 
—  No,  if  he  does  not." 

Answering  the  question,  whether  the  work  and 
experience  that  a  young  man  obtains  in  any  line  of 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       75 

business  develop  the  mental  qualities  required  in  that 
business  fully  as  much  as  would  a  course  in  college,  he 
says: 

"  Yes,  but  the  development  will  be  narrow,  not 
broad.  A  man  educated  altogether  in  a  business  life, 
as  a  general  thing,  is  more  narrow  in  his  views  than  a 
college-bred  man." 

He  would  not  advise  a  young  man  with  only  $5,000 
to  spend  it  for  a  college  education,  if  he  intended  to 
enter  business. 

His  answer  to  the  last  question  is  to  the  effect  that 
he  would  not,  as  a  general  rule,  favor  the  college  man, 
but  he  thinks  that,  in  a  few  cases,  a  man  with  a  college 
education  would  be  worth  twenty-five  per  cent  more 
to  him  than  a  man  without  such  education. 

In  addition  to  his  answers  to  the  questions,  he 
makes  the  following  general  remarks : 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  say,  in  concluding,  that 
my  observation  of  the  work  of  college  men  has  been  that 
they  lack  concentration  —  they  do  not  know  how  to  econ- 
omize time.  They  are  not  willing  to  sacrifice  present  com- 
forts and  convenience  for  the  possibility  of  future  gain. 
At  college  they  do  not  seem  to  teach  either  the  value  of 
time  or  how  it  may  be  saved.  After  several  years  of 
leisure  and  the  independence  of  a  college  life,  a  young 
man  who  enters  one  of  our  large,  modern  business  houses 
finds  himself  sadly  out  of  place  and  out  of  touch  with 
his  surroundings. 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  a  very  natural  result  of  the 
habits  formed  in  college  that  so  many  college  men  find 
life  on  Western  ranches,  in  mines,  or  in  outdoor  work 
generally  more  to  their  liking  than  the  confinement  and 
restrictions  of  a  business  house.  *  *  * 

My  experience  in  business  with  college  men  has  not 
been  in  their  favor.  If  I  decide  to  have  my  son  follow  a 
business  career,  I  will  not  send  him  to  college. 


76      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

MR.  E.  S.  CONWAY, 
Secretary  of  the  W .  W.  Kimball  Company,  Chicago. 

Mr.  Conway  states  that  the  proportion  of  college 
men  in  their  employ  is  four  per  cent ;  that  he  does  not 
give  preference  to  nor  does  he  avoid  college  men,  and 
that  his  experience  has  been  that  the  college  graduate 
does  not,  as  a  rule,  show  greater  mental  ability,  but  he 
thinks  he  should. 

In  reply  to  the  question,  whether  he  thinks  there  is 
need  of  more  than  a  grammar-school  education  in  a 
general  business  life,  he  says :  "  We  are  sure  that  all 
else  being  equal,  a  college  education  should  be  an 
advantage  to  a  young  man  entering  business  life." 

He  closes  his  letter  with  the  following  remarks : 

If  all  young  men  who  desire  a  college  education,  and 
are  able  to  attain  it,  returning  from  college  at  twenty- 
two  or  twenty-three,  with  their  feet  flat  on  the  ground, 
and  a  willingness  on  their  part  to  begin  at  the  bottom, 
working  in  the  primary  school  of  business  with  boys  of 
fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of-  age,  and  never  refer  to  the 
fact  that  they  are  college  bred,  but  are  content  with  the 
consciousness  that  they  have  a  good  foundation  and  apply 
their  energies  to  their  business  undertaking,  such  college 
graduates  will  stand  a  good  chance  before  middle  life 
of  passing  the  boy  who  began  his  business  life  five  or 
six  years  earlier,  but  without  the  college  education. 

In  making  the  above  statement,  I  wish  to  emphasize 
the  fact  that  my  own  experience  as  to  college  men  in 
business  has  been  limited,  for  the  reason  that  the  major- 
ity begin  with  us  at  sixteen  or  seventeen  and  work  up, 
or  out.  If  the  college  man,  with  a  literary  education  only, 
goes  into  business,  he  conies  into  competition  with  young 
men  who  have  been  learning  business  details  for  five  or 
six  years,  which  is  a  heavy  handicap,  and  can  only  be 
overcome,  if  at  all,  by  superior  application,  which  is  quite 
as  likely  to  be  developed  by  the  boy  who  went  out  to 
work  at  sixteen. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      77 

Considering  education  in  a  broad  way  as  training,  not 
confined  to  colleges  or  classrooms,  it  is  evident  that  the 
successful  business  man  must  have  education,  whether  he 
acquire  it  at  college  or  digs  it  out ;  but  I  believe  that  the 
qualities  on  which  the  successful  business  man  depends 
—  staying  power,  grasp,  accurate  knowledge  of  values 
and  ability  to  execute  —  are  not  products  of  the  class- 
room as  distinguished  from  the  shop  and  the  office. 

MR.  WILLIAM  SELLERS, 

President  of  William  Sellers  Company,  Incorporated, 
Philadelphia. 

Mr.  Sellers  states  that  he  has  a  few  college  men  in 
his  employ,  the  proportion  being  about  three-quarters 
of  one  per  cent. 

His  answers  to  the  other  questions  are  so  coupled 
with  conditions  that  I  do  not  quote  them,  as  they  would 
throw  no  light  on  the  subject. 

MR.  HENRY  W.  CRAMP, 

Vice-President  of  the  William  Cramp  &  Sons  Ship  & 
Engine  Building  Company,  Philadelphia. 

Without  taking  up  seriatim  your  questions  as  to  the 
employment  here  of  college  men,  or  men  who  have  not 
enjoyed  a  collegiate  education,  we  will  say,  generally,  that 
such  questions  cut  no  figure  whatever  with  us  in  selecting 
a  man  for  any  position  in  our  employ.  We  employ  men 
solely  with  reference  to  their  capacity  for  the  work  which 
we  desire  them  to  do,  and  it  is  entirely  immaterial  to  us 
how,  when  or  where,  or  by  what  kind  of  process,  they 
acquired  the  education  and  training  that  may  fit  them  for 
their  duties. 

MR.  EDWIN  REYNOLDS, 

With  AHis-Chalmers  Company,  Milwaukee. 

While  he  apparently  favors  college  education,  Mr. 
Reynolds  has  replied  to  only  a  few  of  the  questions, 


78      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

and  these  answers  are  so  hedged  with  conditions  that 
it  is  impossible  to  find  any  clear-cut  expressions  to 
quote. 

He  states  that  the  proportion  of  college  men  in 
their  employ  would  probably  be  not  over  five  per  cent, 
and  his  letter  does  not  indicate  that  he  makes  any  pre- 
tense of  hiring  such  men,  or  that  he  has  given  the  sub- 
ject special  consideration. 

MR.  L.  A.  CARTON, 
Treasurer,  Swift  &  Company,  Chicago. 

The  views  expressed  by  Mr.  Carton  on  this  subject 
are  not  exactly  clear,  and  it  seems  evident  from  his 
letters  that  he  has  given  it  but  little  thought,  and  has 
not  had  sufficient  experience  with  college  men  to 
enable  him  to  form  any  judgment. 

He  says  the  proportion  of  college  men  working  for 
them  is  less  than  one  per  cent,  and  makes  the  remark 
that  he  does  not  believe  their  business  is  attractive  to 
men  who  have  had  advanced  educational  facilities,  but 
I  can  not  see  why  the  work  in  their  office  should  differ 
materially  from  office  work  in  any  other  line  of  busi- 
ness. 


CHAPTER    V. 
CRITICISMS  OF  THE  FOREGOING  LETTERS. 

To  you,  young  men,  who  are  thinking  of  going  to 
college,  and  for  whose  especial  benefit  this  investiga- 
tion has  been  made,  I  think,  in  commenting  on  the 
foregoing  letters,  I  am  justified  in  saying  that,  notwith- 
standing some  of  these  business  men  seem  quite  warm 
in  their  preference  for  college  men  in  their  business, 
the  facts  are  that  there  is  no  satisfactory  evidence  that 
a  single  one  of  them  is  a  consistent  believer  in  college 
men. 

Not  one  of  them  recommends  that  a  young  man 
with  only  $5,000  should  spend  it  for  a  college  educa- 
tion. The  only  ones  who  really  show  favor  to  college 
men  are  Mr.  Antisdel  and  Mr.  Simmons,  and  they 
being  only  recent  converts,  it  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  they  hold  out. 

Aside  from  these  two  there  are  several  who  favor 
college  men  for  the  highest  positions;  but  I  advise 
you  not  to  go  to  college  expecting  one  of  the  higher 
positions,  for  you  will  surely  get  left. 

Mr.  Merrill's  letter  is  a  bright  and  shining  example 
of  the  difference  between  theory  and  practice,  a  differ- 
ence to  which  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  refer. 
For  some  reason  best  known  to  himself,  Mr.  Merrill  is 
enthusiastically  in  favor  of  the  college  graduate  in 
business  until  it  comes  to  employing  him  in  his  own ; 
then  his  interest  seems  to  have  evaporated. 


80      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

While  Mr.  Tuttle  apparently  favors  college  men, 
his  statements  would  have  been  much  more  satisfactory 
had  he  answered  all  the  questions,  and  shown  what 
proportion  of  his  men  were  college  bred,  and  whether 
he  had  really  made  any  practice  of  employing  such  men 
and  giving  them  preference. 

Here  is  the  first  of  many  occurrences  of  a  phrase 
("  all  other  things  being  equal  ")  which  seems  to  have 
a  peculiar  fascination  for  my  correspondents  on  this 
subject.  In  one  form  or  another  it  appears  in  so  many 
of  the  replies  that  one  would  suppose  that  it  seems  to 
them  especially  logical  and  satisfactory.  Now,  the 
fact  is  that,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  it  is  simply 
impossible  that  other  things  should  be  equal;  that  is 
just  the  fallacy  which  I  am  combating  throughout  this 
book.  But  this  point  is  considered  more  at  length  on 
page  85. 

That  Mr.  Harris  gets  mixed  on  his  lines  of  college 
education  is  not  so  much  to  be  wondered  at,  consider- 
ing how  illustrious  an  example  he  has  in  the  President 
of  Harvard,  as  already  noted.  He  has  nothing  to  con- 
tribute to  the  real  point  at  issue  except  his  "  impres- 
sions." But  his  actions  speak  louder  than  his  words, 
for  the  best  he  can  say  is  that  he  has  "  some  "  college 
men  among  his  employees. 

Then  he  falls  back  on  that  amusing  stock  phrase, 
already  noticed  —  "  all  things  being  equal  "  —  which 
seems  to  mean  so  much  and  really  means  nothing. 

Mr.  Ripley  affords  an  amusing  example  of  hedging. 
After  saying  the  best  he  can  for  the  college  graduate 
in  business,  he  seems  suddenly  to  have  bethought  him- 
self that  he  had  gone  too  far,  and  so  proceeds  to  upset 
his  own  argument  by  taking  exactly  the  same  view  of 
the  matter  for  which  I  have  been  contending  all  along. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      81 

In  the  latter  part  of  his  letter  the  only  serious  error 
is  that  he  limits  the  loss  of  time  to  four  years  in  col- 
lege. To  that  must  be  added  at  least  four  years  spent 
in  preparation  for  college,  making  a  total  of  eight 
years  lost  out  of  the  best  part  of  a  young  man's  life. 

A  great  many  of  my  correspondents  manifested 
a  strong  disposition  to  give  me  their  "  impressions  " 
and  "  convictions  "  rather  than  facts,  and  to  this  Mr. 
Hughitt  was  no  exception.  Giving  his  "  convictions  " 
is  the  natural  resort  of  the  man  who  has  no  facts  to 
offer. 

The  argument  that  the  answer  to  my  questions 
"  depends  upon  the  boy  "  is  also  a  prime  favorite,  being 
used  in  various  forms  by  several  of  the  letter  writers. 
I  have  answered  it  at  length  on  page  85. 

The  views  of  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  which  Mr. 
Smink  endorses  so  warmly,  must  be  an  extract  from 
some  after-dinner  speech  at  some  college  banquet, 
where  the  genial  Chauncey,  having  dined  and  wined 
well,  naturally  felt  drawn  to  say  all  the  nice  things 
he  could  think  of  about  college  graduates. 

As  to  Mr.  Smink  himself,  he  is  only  another  case 
of  theory  and  practice  traveling  in  opposite  directions. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  he  states  that  the  industries  with 
which  he  is  connected  have  few  college  men  in  their 
employ,  the  proportion  of  these  men  to  the  whole 
being,  as  he  says,  "  almost  infinitesimal."  This  would 
seem  to  me  to  be  an  indication  that  he  does  not  carry 
out  his  theories  in  practice.  The  only  valuable  part 
of  his  letter  is  that  in  which  he  draws  so  good  a  picture 
of  the  conceit  of  the  college  graduate;  which  agrees 
perfectly  with  what  I  have  said  on  that  subject  on 
page  102. 

In  regard  to  Mr.  Hyman's  criticism  I  will  say  only 


82      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

this :  How  can  the  scope  of  my  inquiry  be  "  too  nar- 
row," when  it  involves  the  welfare  of  thousands  of 
young  men  who  are  graduated  every  year  from  the 
academic  department  of  our  colleges,  knowing  full  well 
that  they  must  make  their  own  way  in  business  life  and 
imagining  that  the  education  which  they  have  acquired 
at  such  a  cost  of  effort  time  and  money  will  be  a  help 
to  them  ? 

What  Mr.  McCormick  has  to  say  about  "  the  same 
endowment,"  "  same  environment,"  and  "  same  oppor- 
tunities," is  the  same  old  idea,  under  a  different  form, 
of  "  all  other  things  being  equal,"  which  I  have 
exploded  on  page  85. 

Mr.  Antisdel's  argument  betrays  the  same  "  struc- 
tural weakness  "  as  that  of  so  many  others,  for,  by  his 
own  admissions,  he  has  given  the  matter  little  thought 
and  that  recently.  Naturally,  therefore,  he  falls  back 
on  the  meaningless  stock  phrase  of  "  everything  else 
being  equal." 

The  letter  from  Armour  &  Co.,  like  so  many  others, 
tries  to  face  both  ways  at  once.  It  would  seem  as 
though  there  were  very  few  business  houses  where 
greater  opportunities  existed  for  utilizing  college  men, 
if  they  possess  the  merits  which  the  writer  of  this  letter 
seems  to  think  they  have.  As  they  have  few  such  men 
in  their  employ,  it  is  evident  that  the  importance  of 
hiring  college  men  has  not  made  a  strong  impression 
upon  them. 

The  latter  part  of  Mr.  Conway's  letter  contains  all 
that  I  care  to  notice,  for  it  concedes  the  exact  position 
I  have  taken  all  along.  It  is  useless  for  Mr.  Conway, 
or  any  one  else,  to  speculate  on  what  might  be  if  the 
college  graduate  were  altogether  different  from  what 
he  is.  "A  willingness  to  begin  at  the  bottom  "  and 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      83 

"  never  to  refer  to  the  fact  that  they  are  college  bred," 
is  just  what  does  not  distinguish  college  graduates. 

These  men  certainly  are  among  the  strongest  and 
best  men  in  the  country  for  information  on  this  subject, 
and  it  is  surprising  what  a  mess  most  of  them  have 
made  in  answering  my  letters. 

CERTAIN  DEDUCTIONS. 

The  surprising  thing  in  most  of  these  letters  is 
that  so  many  of  the  writers  seem  to  think  they  are 
under  some  obligation  to  say  something  encouraging 
about  college  education.  They  do  not  seem  to  realize 
that  this  is  a  most  important  matter,  and  that  I  am  try- 
ing to  get  some  solid  and  substantial  information  for 
the  benefit  of  young  men.  It  is  sadly  out  of  place  for 
them  to  disguise  facts  or  to  do  anything  to  mislead. 
Many  of  them  make  the  statement  that  there  is  need 
of  more  than  a  common-school  education  in  a  com- 
mercial life,  and  that  there  is  something  about  the 
mental  training  and  mental  discipline  which  a  young 
man  receives  at  college  that  is  of  great  value  to  him 
in  business,  enabling  him  to  grasp  questions  and 
reason  out  matters  more  readily  than  one  who  has  not 
attended  college.  It  will  be  observed,  however,  that 
with  two  or  three  exceptions,  none  of  these  gentlemen 
appears  to  make  a  point  of  employing  such  men  in  his 
business. 

RAILROAD  MEN. 

In  this  connection  I  wish  to  call  especial  attention 
to  the  letters  from  Mr.  Merrill  and  Mr.  Welling. 

If  college  men  possess  the  qualifications  which  these 
gentlemen  claim  for  them,  is  it  not  strange  that  the 


84      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

great  corporations  with  which  they  are  connected  have 
not  employed  them  more  extensively,  for  they  have 
much  greater  opportunities  to  utilize  such  men  than 
any  other  class  of  employers? 

It  seems  to  me  that  there  is  no  branch  of  work  in 
which  there  is  greater  need  of  men  who  possess  good 
tact  and  general  ability  than  in  the  position  of  station 
agents,  and  the  fact  that  so  few  college  graduates  are 
found  among  them  I  think  fully  confirms  my  claim  that 
anything  further  in  the  way  of  school  training  than 
can  be  obtained  by  the  time  a  boy  leaves  the  grammar 
grades  would  be  of  no  advantage  whatever  to  persons 
in  the  above,  or,  in  fact,  almost  any  other  department 
of  railroad  work. 

Considering  the  fact  that  the  hundreds  of  men  at 
the  heads  of  railroads  throughout  this  country  have 
been  able  to  conduct  their  business  successfully, 
although  possessing  only  a  moderate  amount  of  educa- 
tion, and  that  the  college  graduate  is  conspicuously 
scarce  in  the  higher  positions  in  the  railway  service, 
it  seems  to  me  the  height  of  absurdity  for  any  one  to 
claim  that  the  subordinate  positions  require  highly 
educated  men.  To  do  so  is  equivalent  to  saying  that 
a  person  who  might  be  capable  of  filling  the  position 
of  president  of  a  road  is  insufficiently  educated  to 
occupy  one  of  the  minor  positions;  and  what  is  true 
of  the  railway  business  is,  of  course,  equally  true  of 
a  mercantile  business. 

Much  has  been  said  in  various  ways  in  connection 
with  this  subject  in  regard  to  higher  education  being 
favored  by  railroad  men,  but  in  the  letters  that  I  have 
received  from  such  gentlemen  not  one  of  them  has 
expressed  any  regret  on  account  of  having  failed  to 
receive  such  an  education  himself. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       85 

This  phase  of  the  subject  is  treated  more  specif- 
ically in  Chapter  VII  of  Part  Two. 

"  EVERYTHING  ELSE  BEING  EQUAL." 

Many  business  men,  in  theorizing  on  this  subject, 
have  said  that  they  would  give  preference  to  college- 
bred  men,  "  everything  else  being  equal  " ;  or,  "  all 
other  things  being  equal." 

They  do  not  state  just  what  they  mean  by  this 
remark,  but  I  presume  it  is  their  idea  that,  if  they 
had  to  choose  between  two  young  men  of  equal  natural 
abilities,  one  being  a  college  graduate  and  the  other 
not,  they  would  favor  the  college  man.  It  will  be  seen, 
however,  upon  reflection,  that  this  is  not  a  supposable 
case ;  that  is,  there  is  no  such  thing  in  this  instance  as 
"  everything  else  being  equal."  For  it  must  be  assumed 
that  the  young  man  who  did  not  go  to  college  has 
gained  about  eight  years'  experience  in  the  line  of 
work  in  which  he  is  seeking  employment,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  he  has  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
business;  and  it  will  be  found  that  in  every  instance 
the  employer  will  give  him  preference  over  the  young 
man  who  is  just  leaving  college. 

"  WOULD  DEPEND  UPON  THE  BOY." 

In  response  to  the  question  whether  they  would 
advise  a  boy  to  go  to  college,  some  of  these  gentlemen 
say  that  this  would  "  depend  upon  the  boy." 

Here  again  they  fail  to  explain  their  meaning,  but 
I  imagine  that  where  a  boy  appears  to  have  a  capacity 
for  absorbing  knowledge  in  the  grammar  school,  keeps 
well  up  toward  the  head  of  his  class,  and  is  persistent 
in  his  desire  to  go  to  college,  they  would  advise  his 


86      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

doing  so.  If  this  is  their  idea,  then  the  question  arises, 
Why  would  they  recommend  his  pursuing  this  course 
in  preference  to  taking  up  some  line  of  work?  The 
mere  fact  that  he  shows  a  capacity  for  learning  and 
has  a  notion  that  it  is  a  desirable  thing  to  go  to  college 
is  certainly  no  proof  whatever  that  such  an  education 
would  be  of  value  to  him,  and  I  maintain  that  these 
gentlemen,  instead  of  advising  him  to  take  such  a 
course,  ought  to  have  corrected  his  mistaken  theories 
on  this  subject  in  the  same  manner  that  I  am  now 
endeavoring  to  do. 

THE  USUAL  METHOD  OF  EMPLOYING. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that,  when  it  conies  to 
considering  an  applicant  for  a  position,  none  of  these 
business  men  will  be  found  to  pay  any  attention  to  the 
amount  of  knowledge  a  man  may  have  of  Greek,  Latin, 
literature,  etc.,  or  care  a  straw  about  the  mental  drill 
and  discipline,  or  the  well-rounded  character  that  he 
may  have  acquired  through  a  course  at  college. 

The  only  thing  that  interests  them  is  whether  he 
understands  their  business  and  can  promote  it.  This 
is  all  that  has  any  weight  with  them  in  the  selection 
of  help  —  a  truth  which  can  not  be  impressed  too 
strongly  upon  every  candidate  for  commercial  pursuits. 

I  regard  the  letters  from  Mr.  Townsend,  President 
of  Importers'  and  Traders'  Bank,  New  York,  and  Mr. 
Dau,  of  Reid,  Murdoch  &  Co.,  as  being  decidedly  the 
most  accurate  and  the  most  businesslike  of  all  the 
replies  received,  and  I  believe  it  will  be  found  that  the 
method  which  they  say  is  followed  in  their  business  is 
the  custom  of  practically  all  business  men  —  that  is, 
they  take  boys  about  sixteen  years  of  age  who  have 
attended  the  common  grammar  schools  and  train  them 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       87 

in  their  own  methods,  advancing  them  as  they  prove 
worthy  and  as  the  business  requires.  Not  only  is  this 
the  most  economical  way,  but  civil  service  and  fair  play 
demand  that  young  men  who  show  themselves  worthy 
and  capable  should  be  promoted. 

Every  young  man  ought  to  realize  that  if  he  is  to 
receive  advancement,  he  must  make  himself  worthy 
of  it,  and  when  he  proves  himself  deserving,  it  is  an 
injustice  to  deprive  him  of  promotion  by  bringing  in 
outside  help,  such  as  college  graduates.  Besides,  if 
outsiders  are  hired  for  such  advanced  positions,  the 
chances  are  that,  three  times  out  of  four,  a  mistake 
will  be  made,  and  the  experiment  will  result  in  a 
waste  of  time  and  money.  On  the  other  hand,  an 
employer  is  in  little  danger  of  making  an  error  when 
he  promotes  young  men  who  have  been  educated  in 
his  establishment,  for  he  has  had  plenty  of  oppor- 
tunity to  acquaint  himself  with  their  characters  and 
capabilities. 

A    COLLEGE  GRADUATE'S  EXPERIENCE. 

In  this  connection  some  remarks  made  by  a  college 
graduate  in  an  unsolicited  letter  recently  sent  to  me 
no  doubt  will  be  of  interest,  for  I  believe  that  prac- 
tically all  college  men,  who  possess  no  business  experi- 
ence, meet  with  similar  difficulties  when  seeking 
employment,  and  that  this  letter  shows  clearly  the 
attitude  of  business  men  toward  them.  The  general 
character  of  his  letter  is  such  as  to  make  a  favorable 
impression  upon  any  one  receiving  it  —  I  think  much 
more  so  than  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  from  college 
men  —  and  in  view  of  his  experience  it  is  easy  to 
imagine  what  that  of  others  must  be. 

After   discussing   some   questions   which  are  not 


88      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

relevant  to  this  investigation,  this  graduate  takes  the 
ground  that  experience  is  far  more  valuable  than 
theories  in  any  discussion  of  this  kind  —  with  which 
view  I  fully  agree.  He  then  goes  on  to  say : 

I  think  that  my  experience  may  be  taken  as  a  pretty 
fair  test  of  the  value  of  a  college  education  in  "  hustling 
for  a  job."  Summarized,  it  stood  thus :  I  answered  over 
450  "ads."  of  all  kinds,  taking  every  precaution  to  make 
my  replies  as  businesslike  and  convincing  as  possible; 
sent  out  over  seventy  typewritten  applications  to  picked 
addresses;  and  made  innumerable  applications  in  person. 
In  almost  every  case  I  was  met  by  the  same  fatal 
question,  What  do  you  know  about  our  business?  In 
Chicago,  at  any  rate,  the  employer  makes  it  the  first  con- 
dition of  engagement  that  you  shall  know  about  his  busi- 
ness; if  you  lack  that  qualification  he  cares  not  how  fine 
your  personal  qualities  may  be,  how  excellent  your  mental 
capacity,  how  faithful  your  zeal.  He  will  not  give  you 
even  a  chance  to  show  what  you  can  do. 

Does  some  one  say  that  the  reason  why  the  college 
man  can  not  find  a  business  position  is  because  he  is  too 
proud  to  begin  at  the  bottom  and  work  his  way  up? 
There  again  appears  the  ignorance  of  those  who  theorize 
about  that  which  they  never  tried.  In  this  city,  at  least, 
employers  of  business  help  will  not  take  a  man  who  is 
nearly  twenty-five  years  of  age  as  a  beginner  without 
business  experience.  They  want  young  fellows  in  their 
teens,  and  so  specify  in  their  "  ads." ;  of  course  they  can 
get  plenty  of  them.  They  are  cheaper,  will  last  longer, 
and  are  more  easily  reduced  to  mere  cogs  in  the  business 
machine.  A  college  man  knows  too  many  other  things. 

As  a  last  resort  I  even  applied  to  Mr.  A.  C.  Bartlett. 
In  my  innocence  I  imagined  that  the  friend  and  advocate 
of  the  college  graduate  in  business  might  consider  my 
exceptional  character,  references  and  general  capacity  to 
be  so  much  of  an  offset  to  my  ignorance  of  hardware 
quotations  that  he  might  be  willing  to  utilize  my  ability 
and  reliability  in  some  corner  of  his  large  business.  He 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       89 

assured  me  politely  but  positively  that  he  could  not  use 
a  man  in  his  business  who  did  not  know  it  from  the  bot- 
tom up ! 

There  is  no  more  pitiful  object,  so  far  as  I  know, 
than  a  young  man  coming  out  of  college  and  seeking  a 
job.  He  finds  he  gets  the  cold  shoulder  from  every 
one  he  meets ;  that  the  people  who  recommended  the 
college  to  him  have  humbugged  him  to  the  last  degree, 
and  now,  when  it  is  too  late,  he  finds  how  utterly  false 
have  been  all  the  claims  as  to  the  advantages  of  a  col- 
lege education. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

FURTHER  MISREPRESENTATIONS  OF 
EDUCATORS. 

In  addition  to  the  false  statements  made  by  the 
heads  of  colleges  in  their  replies  to  my  letter  of  inquiry, 
as  referred  to  in  Chapter  II  of  this  part,  I  call  atten- 
tion to  the  following  falsehoods  and  misrepresentations 
that  have  been  gathered  during  this  investigation. 

PRESIDENT  JORDAN'S  EXTRAVAGANT  CLAIMS. 

Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan,  President  of  Leland  Stan- 
ford, Jr.,  University,  has  written  at  considerable  length 
upon  this  subject  in  a  recent  issue  of  the  Independent, 
but  it  is  unnecessary  to  reply  to  his  argument  in  detail, 
since  it  is  sufficiently  covered  by  the  pages  of  this 
book.  He  is  most  emphatic  in  his  claims  for  the  value 
of  college  education  to  the  business  man,  but  his  claims 
manifest  the  usual  confusion  of  ideas  and  impractica- 
bility of  the  college  educator  when  he  undertakes  to 
deal  with  business  questions.  The  notion  which  he,  in 
common  with  most  of  the  college  presidents,  entertains 
with  regard  to  the  helpfulness  of  breadth  of  education 
to  the  young  man  who  must  hustle  for  himself  in  com- 
mercial life,  is  absolutely  erroneous.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  much  more  likely  to  injure  his  chances. 

It  remains  only  to  give  attention  to  some  of  his 
unjustifiable  remarks.  He  says  that  this  is  the  "  era 
of  great  projects,  of  great  achievements,"  and  that 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       91 

"the  business  of  to-day  and  of  the  future  demands  a 
higher  grade  of  intelligence  and  a  more  highly  special- 
ized ability  than  the  individual  commerce  of  a  gener- 
ation ago.  It  therefore  demands  higher  training." 

My  reply  to  this  is :  If  college  men  have  not  been 
able  to  demonstrate  their  worth  in  the  smaller  oper- 
ations of  the  past,  it  is  absurd  to  claim  that  they  will 
be  in  greater  demand  in  the  larger  operations  upon 
which  we  are  now  entering. 

In  another  place  President  Jordan  says :  "  It  is 
when  exceptional  effort  or  exceptional  responsibility 
is  demanded  that  training  shows  itself.  The  excep- 
tional man  places  himself  in  line  for  just  such  possi- 
bilities." 

To  this  idea  I  have  replied  elsewhere  in  this  book. 
Here  I  will  say  only  that,  if  President  Jordan's  state- 
ments were  correct,  college  men  would  be  in  great 
demand  by  business  men  instead  of  being  shunned  by 
them. 

As  the  keenness  of  competition  to-day  is  such  that 
no  man  can  afford  to  neglect  the  utilization  of  all 
kinds  of  help  that  will  promote  his  business,  business 
men  would  be  as  keen  to  hire  such  men  as  they  would 
be  to  buy  improved  methods  and  machinery. 

COLLEGE  CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTRY. 

But  the  most  astounding  of  President  Jordan's 
claims  is  found  in  this :  "  Of  all  the  business  men  of 
the  world,  those  sent  out  from  the  American  univer- 
sity are  the  most  alert,  the  most  enlightened,  the  keen- 
est of  mind  and  the  most  effective  in  action.  These 
are  our  captains  of  industry,  and  the  young  fellows 
who  have  worked  their  way  from  the  streets  to  the 
counting-room  as  cash  boys,  errand  boys  and  appren- 


92      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

tices,  must  continue,  a  few  bright  individuals  excepted, 
to  plod  along  in  the  ranks !  " 

What  a  rhetorical  balloon !  Not  one  of  the  cap- 
tains—  or,  more  accurately  speaking,  generals  of 
industry  —  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  ascertain,  has  been 
through  college.  President  Jordan  should  be  more 
careful  in  his  statements. 

In  another  place  I  find  this :  "  Mr.  Irving  M.  Scott, 
of  the  Union  Iron  Works,  the  builder  of  the  Oregon, 
has  among  his  employees  numerous  graduates  of  Cor- 
nell and  Stanford.  He  told  me  the  other  day  that  he 
regarded  a  university  man  as  worth  fifty  per  cent 
more  than  a  man  who  had  come  up  to  the  same  level 
by  practical  experience."  President  Jordan  is  mis- 
taken, for  I  ascertained  by  correspondence  with  Mr. 
Scott  that  he  referred  to  technical  men  only. 

He  speaks  in  a  rather  contemptuous  way  of  the 
people  who  grow  up  from  the  lower  positions  of  cash 
boys,  floorwalkers,  clerks,  etc. ;  which  seems  to  me 
exceedingly  poor  taste.  He  should  remember  that  it 
was  in  just  such  positions  as  these  that  Mr.  Carnegie 
and  many  others  of  our  successful  men  started,  and  I 
think  this  remark  shows  the  contempt  for  honest  labor 
which  is  altogether  too  prevalent  among  the  educa- 
tional classes.  For  my  part,  I  have  a  greater  respect 
for  honest  labor  than  for  men  who  make  their  living  by 
sharp  practice  and  by  humbugging  the  public.  Presi- 
dent Jordan  appears  to  forget  that  he  owes  his  job  at 
Leland  Stanford  to  one  of  those  men,  who,  I  presume, 
never  had  a  college  education. 

But  there  is  hope  yet  for  President  Jordan,  for  he 
admits  that  in  the  past  the  college  has  not  been  doing 
as  good  work  as  it  ought  to  or  could  have  done.  This 
seems  to  be  the  idea  now  of  practically  all  college  men. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      93 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  MR.  ANDREW  CARNEGIE. 

Some  time  ago  I  noticed  that  one  of  these  college 
advocates,  in  an  attempt  to  bolster  up  the  importance 
of  college  education,  made  the  claim  that  Mr.  Carnegie 
had  said  he  owed  his  prosperity  to  college  men.  The 
following  extracts  from  his  book,  "  The  Empire  of 
Business,"  show  how  false  such  a  statement  really  is: 

In  my  own  experience  I  can  say  that  I  have  known 
few  young  men  intended  for  business  who  were  not 
injured  by  a  collegiate  education.  Had  they  gone  into 
active  work  during  the  years  spent  at  college  they  would 
have  been  better  educated  men  in  every  true  sense  of  that 
term.  The  fire  and  energy  have  been  stamped  out  of 
them,  and  how  to  so  manage  as  to  live  a  life  of  idleness 
and  not  a  life  of  usefulness  has  become  the  chief  ques- 
tion with  them.  *  *  * 

I  have  inquired  and  searched  everywhere,  in  all  quar- 
ters, but  find  small  trace  of  him  as  a  leader  in  affairs, 
although  not  seldom  occupying  positions  of  trust  in  finan- 
cial institutions.  Nor  is  this  surprising.  The  prize-takers 
have  too  many  years  the  start  of  the  graduate  —  they  have 
entered  for  the  race  invariably  in  their  teens  —  in  the 
most  valuable  of  all  the  years  for  learning  —  from  four- 
teen to  twenty.  *  *  * 

The  almost  total  absence  of  the  graduate  from  high 
positions  in  the  business  world  would  seem  to  justify  the 
conclusion  that  college  education  as  it  exists  seems 'almost 
fatal  to  success  in  that  domain.  *  *  * 

A  captain  of  industry  is  one  who  makes  his  all  in  his 
business  and  depends  upon  success  for  compensation.  It 
is  in  this  field  that  the  graduate  has  little  chance,  entering 
at  twenty,  against  the  boy  who  swept  the  office  or  who 
begins  as  shipping-clerk  at  fourteen.  The  facts  prove 
this. 

PROF.  CHAPLIN'S  FATAL  ADMISSIONS. 

Especially  feeble  was  the  plea  of  Professor  Chap- 
lin, of  Washington  University,  St.  Louis,  in  a  recent 


94      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

article  which,  I  think,  was  inspired  by  the  first  edi- 
tion of  my  book.  After  practically  admitting  that 
there  is  not  much  to  show  for  college  education,  he 
says,  in  conclusion,  that  we  must  take  it  on  faith  and 
that  a  hundred  years  hence  a  very  different  state  of 
things  will  be  seen  in  this  country  as  a  result  of  college 
education.  This  position  is  similar  to  that  taken  by  the 
Milwaukee  Sentinel  when  commenting  upon  my  book. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen,  from  their  own  admissions, 
that  when  college  advocates  undertake  to  produce  evi- 
dence in  support  of  their  institutions,  they  make  a  most 
dismal  failure.  It  certainly  is  asking  altogether  too 
much  to  request  the  public  to  wait  another  hundred 
years  for  colleges  to  demonstrate  their  worth. 

COMMERCIAL-COLLEGE  EDUCATION. 

The  following  is  my  reply  to  a  letter  received  from 
Professor  Clark,  of  the  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  Univer- 
sity, which  it  is  unnecessary  to  print,  since  the  reply 
explains  the  letter : 

CHICAGO,  May  9,  1902. 

With  reference  to  your  suggestion  regarding  the  in- 
troduction of  business  training  in  a  college  curriculum, 
I  would  say  that,  while  this  would  perhaps  be  an  improve- 
ment upon  the  old  methods,  I  find  that  I  am  so  entirely 
out  of  accord  with  everything  in  the  line  of  higher  edu- 
cation, that  I  can  not  bring  myself  to  the  point  of  encour- 
aging you  in  the  changes  which  you  propose. 

Of  course,  anything  in  the  way  of  study  that  is  along 
the  lines  of  practical  education  possesses  some  advan- 
tages, and  it  might  be  possible  that  colleges  could  pick 
out  some  such  lines  in  which  a  young  man  could,  by  sys- 
tematic application,  make  more  rapid  advancement  than  he 
would  be  able  to  do  in  an  office. 

I  am,  however,  very  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  these 
institutions  can  not  be  made  useful  to  business  men  in  the 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       95 

production  of  help,  and  that  it  is  a  great  mistake  for  a 
young  man  who  expects  to  enter  upon  a  business  career  to 
spend  his  time  and  money  taking  a  course  in  college. 

THE  BEST  COURSE. 

It  is  my  belief  that  it  is  infinitely  better  for  him  to  go 
into  an  office  at  the  age  of,  say  sixteen,  for  by  so  doing 
he  will  be  earning  something,  instead  of  being  under  a 
large  expense;  at  the  same  time  he  will  be  acquiring 
information  along  the  line  of  work  which  he  expects  to 
follow,  as  well  as  learning  a  hundred  and  one  things 
that  will  be  more  or  less  useful  to  him  later  in  life  and 
which  he  could  not  possibly  obtain  a  knowledge  of  at 
college. 

As  to  your  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  study  of  sten- 
ography, of  course  stenographers  are  in  great  demand, 
but  young  men  who  wish  to  take  up  that  branch  had  bet- 
ter attend  s.ome  school  for  that  particular  purpose. 

With  regard  to  bookkeeping,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
rules  covering  this  branch  of  work  could  be  very  easily 
published,  if  this  is  not  already  done,  so  that  those  de- 
siring to  study  it  could  do  so  at  home  as  well  as  in  school. 

The  ordinary  bookkeeper  is  in  more  or  less  demand 
in  the  smaller  institutions,  and  a. young  man  will  undoubt- 
edly find  that  a  knowledge  of  this  work  is  advantageous. 
I  presume,  however,  that  the  great  mass  of  bookkeepers 
are  produced  in  the  same  way  as  the  majority  of  me- 
chanics—  that  is,  they  commence  in  an  office  just  as  an 
apprentice  does  in  a  factory,  and  advance  from  one  line 
to  another  as  they  grow  up,  in  this  way  becoming  profi- 
cient in  some  branch  of  work  without  any  cost. 

MECHANICAL  EDUCATION. 

Referring  to  what  you  have  to  say  concerning  prac- 
tical training  in  mechanical  lines,  I  do  not  think  this  cuts 
any  figure  whatever  so  far  as  the  making  of  mechanics 
is  concerned.  If  such  young  men  as  you  turn  out  had 
been  put  at  some  mechanical  work  while  they  were  young, 
they  might  have  stayed  at  it  and  become  mechanics;  but 


96      ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

after  going  through  such  a  school  as  you  propose,  they 
are  spoiled  for  anything  of  that  kind,  and  while  the 
mechanical  work  that  they  learn  there  may  be  of  some 
advantage  to  them  in  after  life,  it  really  cuts  no  figure 
in  the  question  of  education. 

Should  your  proposition  be  carried  out,  I  contend  we 
would  run  into  the  same  mistake  that  is  met  with  in  what 
are  called  "  trade  schools,"  which  are  popular  with  theo- 
retical educators  at  the  present  time.  As  business  is  now 
conducted,  the  boys  are  earning  their  living  while  acquir- 
ing their  trade,  and  if  they  can  do  this,  what  necessity 
is  there  for  "  trade  schools  "  ? 

DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY. 

Persons  in  your  proposed  line  should  bear  in  mind  that 
they  ought  to  produce  something  for  which  there  is  a 
demand;  and  further,  that  it  is  not  sufficient  when  the 
demand  conies  from  simply  a  few  persons;  it  should  be 
such  a  demand  as  to  take  all  the  young  men  of  this  kind 
that  the  colleges  can  turn  out.  In  other  words,  these 
institutions  should  be  conducted  upon  the  same  prin- 
ciples upon  which  a  man  runs  his  factory.  If  a  manufac- 
turer expects  to  succeed  in  his  business,  he  is  compelled, 
by  competition,  to  produce  an  article  that  will  sell  at  a 
profit,  and  must  look  forward  to  see  whether  there  is  a 
demand  for  his  product.  It  will  not  do  for  him  to  turn 
out  goods  for  which  there  is  no  demand,  or  produce  them 
at  a  price  which  will  not  admit  of  their  being  sold  at  a 
profit.  A  man  who  should  go  to  work,  for  instance,  and 
build  a  hundred  air-ships  without  knowing  that  they  would 
be  in  demand  or  that  he  could  get  his  money  out  of  them, 
would  most  certainly  be  considered  crazy. 

Should  you  disagree  with  the  views  that  I  have  herein 
expressed,  I  would  suggest  that  you  submit  your  curric- 
ulum, with  full  particulars,  to  some  of  the  gentlemen 
who  claim  to  have  a  favorable  opinion  regarding  the 
value  of  college  education,  say  Mr.  W.  F.  Merrill  (Vice- 
President,  N.  Y.,  N.  H.  &  H.  R.  R.  Co.),  Mr.  A.  C  Bart- 
lett  (Vice-President,  Hibbard,  Spencer,  Bartlett  &  Co., 
Chicago),  or  Mr.  E.  C.  Simmons  (Simmons  Hardware 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.       97 

Company,  St.  Louis),  and  request  them  to  give  you  an 
order  for  some  of  the  students  who  will  graduate  from 
your  college. 

The  situation  has  not  changed  since  the  foregoing 
letter  was  written.  In  the  commercial  life  of  to-day 
the  young  man  who  had  nothing  more  than  a  gram- 
mar-school education  makes  as  creditable  a  showing 
as  the  young  man  who  took  a  course  in  a  business  col- 
lege. One  is  as  likely  to  be  efficient  as  the  other,  each 
being  judged  by  the  amount  of  brains  and  intelligence 
applied  to  his  work. 

I  know  this  to  be  true  of  our  own  offices.  Hun- 
dreds of  clerks  are  in  our  employ.  The  amount  of 
formal  education  they  received  had  little,  if  anything, 
to  do  with  their  employment.  And  it  is  the  opinion  of 
the  official  in  charge  that  the  clerks  who  did  not  have  a 
business-college  education  would  be  no  more  valuable 
to  the  business  to-day  if  they  had  taken  such  a  course, 
nor  would  their  success  have  been  greater. 

I  am  safe  in  saying  that  in  general  those  of  our 
clerks  who  had  a  commercial  education  have  been  no 
more  successful  or  efficient  than  those  who  got  all  of 
their  formal  education  in  the  public  grammar  schools. 
We  have  proved  that,  for  a  boy  with  good  intelligence, 
energy  and  ambition,  a  year  in  the  business  itself  is 
worth  two  years  in  a  business  college. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
GENERAL   DISCUSSION    OF   THE   SUBJECT. 

WORDS  OF  WISDOM. 

The  best  education  in  the  world  is  that  got  by  strug- 
gling to  make  a  living.  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

The  true  order  of  learning  should  be,  first,  what  is 
necessary;  second,  what  is  useful,  and  third,  what  is 
ornamental.  To  reverse  this  arrangement  is  like  begin- 
ning to  build  at  the  top  of  the  edifice. 

MRS.  SIGOURNEY. 

There  are  three  classes  of  people  in  the  world.  The 
first  learn  from  their  own  experience  —  these  are  the 
wise;  the  second  learn  from  the  experience  of  others  — 
these  are  the  happy;  the  third  learn  neither  from  their 
own  experience  nor  from  that  of  others  —  these  are  fools. 

CHESTERFIELD. 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  STARTING  RIGHT  IN  LIFE. 

Having  laid  before  the  reader  the  views  of  both 
college  educators  and  business  men,  I  now  desire  to 
impress  upon  young  men  seeking  a  college  education 
the  vital  importance  to  them  of  a  wise  choice.  Too 
much  stress  can  not  be  laid  upon  this.  Life  is  too 
short,  and  the  path  to  success  too  long,  to  permit 
indulging  in  the  luxury  of  making  mistakes. 

The  years  which  a  young  man  spends  in  college 
are  decidedly  the  most  important  and  valuable  in  his 
life.  It  is  during  this  period  that  he  usually  lays  the 
foundation  for  his  life's  work,  and  not  the  slightest 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.      99 

doubt  should  be  allowed  to  exist  regarding  the  utility 
of  the  occupation  to  which  he  devotes  this  time.  When 
he  arrives  at  the  age  of  manhood,  it  is  expected  that 
he  will  be  at  least  self-supporting  and  prepared  to 
assume  the  responsibilities  of  manhood. 

Many  young  men  receive  an  erroneous  impres- 
sion regarding  the  value  of  a  college  education,  and 
think,  as  the  president  of  a  western  college  once 
remarked  in  his  address  to  a  graduating  class,  that 
upon  leaving  college  they  can  go  out  and  pick  up 
gold  bricks  in  the  street.  It  is  only  after  they  have 
spent  their  valuable  time  in  college  and  have  started 
out  to  earn  a  living  that  they  find  their  higher  edu- 
cation is  practically  of  no  advantage  to  them;  that 
they  must  commence  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  which 
they  could  have  done  better  eight  years  before,  and 
would  now  be  earning  a  reasonable  salary. 

In  other  words,  not  until  then  do  they  learn  the 
truth  of  this  college  president's  further  remark  that 
the  bricks  referred  to  are  fastened  down  tight.  I 
think  they  will  also  discover  that,  instead  of  their 
college  education  making  them  especially  skilful  in 
loosening  the  bricks,  it  really  has  the  opposite  effect, 
and  that  they  are  less  able  to  accomplish  this  task  than 
the  man  who  did  not  go  to  college.  Are  not  the  heads 
of  these  institutions  treating  boys  unjustly  when  they 
allow  them  to  go  through  college  under  this  mis- 
apprehension, and  fail  to  enlighten  them  upon  this 
subject  before  they  have  spent  their  time  and  money 
and  are  about  to  go  out  into  the  world? 

COST  OF  A  COLLEGE  EDUCATION. 

The  answers  from  college  presidents  to  the  question 
regarding  the  cost  of  educating  a  student  have  been 


100    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

omitted,  because  several  have  given  no  information  at 
all  upon  this  point,  and  I  think  those  who  attempted 
to  do  so  have  been  mistaken  in  their  figures. 

For  the  purpose  of  my  inquiry  this  question  should 
be  considered  in  a  strictly  businesslike  way,  for  it 
seems  to  me  that  education  should  be  subjected  to 
practically  the  same  tests  as  to  value  as  an  ordinary 
commodity.  To  arrive  at  the  total  expense  we  should 
take  into  consideration  not  only  the  cost  of  tuition,  but 
the  amount  which  the  boy  would  have  earned  had  he 
been  employed  in  some  business  occupation  from  the 
time  he  finished  grammar  school  until  his  graduation 
from  college,  and  also  the  difference  between  his  earn- 
ing capacity  for  several  years  after  he  does  start  in 
business  and  that  of  the  young  man  who  has  not 
attended  college,  all  of  which  I  roughly  estimate  as 
amounting  to  from  $10,000  to  $12,000.  When  this 
sum  is  multiplied  by  the  number  of  students  turned 
out  by  these  institutions  every  year,  it  will  be  seen 
what  an  enormous  economic  loss  is  involved.  The 
$10,000  that  is  consumed  in  the  education  of  a  boy 
from  grammar  school  through  high  school  and  college 
would  buy  a  farm  and  put  some  one  in  a  position  to 
make  a  comfortable  living. 

SUCCESS  WITH  AND  WITHOUT  EDUCATION. 

In  one  of  the  letters  from  business  men  attention 
is  called  to  an  article  by  John  W.  Leonard,  entitled, 
"  College  Education  and  Success,"  in  which  reference 
is  made  to  some  statistics  in  the  book,  "  Who's  Who 
in  America,"  showing  the  number  of  successful  men 
in  this  country  who  have  had  a  college  education. 

This  book  is  also  referred  to  in  a  letter  received 
from  President  McLean  of  the  University  of  Iowa. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     101 

To  this  statement  I  reply  that  these  men  are  exceed- 
ingly hard  to  find  and  that  they  are  but  a  small  per- 
centage of  the  successful  men  of  the  country.  But, 
even  if  they  were  successful  as  a  rule,  the  question  is, 
how  much  does  this  prove  as  against  the  men  who 
made  an  equal  success  without  education?  The  fact 
that  college  men  become  strong  men  does  not  prove 
anything,  but  the  fact  that  men  without  education 
develop  into  strong  men  proves  everything. 

It  is  certainly  remarkable  that  so  few  college  men 
are  what  would  be  called  a  decided  success  in  business, 
since  they  are  the  offspring  of  the  strongest  people  of 
the  country;  so  I  think  it  only  just  to  say  that  their 
failure  to  show  more  success  is  evidence  that  they  have 
degenerated  instead  of  improved. 

I  have  no  means  of  judging  the  correctness  of  those 
statistics  or  how  successful  such  men  have  been  in 
business,  since  there  are  all  degrees  of  success;  but  I 
will  say  this,  that  probably  not  more  than  two  or  three 
of  the  pioneer  business  men  in  Chicago  who  have  made 
a  marked  success  in  business  ever  attended  college,  and 
the  remainder  did  not,  as  a  rule,  receive  even  a  full 
grammar-school  education.  Practically  all  of  our 
strongest  and  most  successful  men  in  the  country 
to-day  came  from  farms  and  villages  and  obtained  very 
little  education. 

EVIDENCE  SHOULD  BE  EASILY  GOT. 

If  a  college  education  were  of  any  decided  help  to 
a  man,  there  would  be  plenty  of  evidence  for  it  before 
the  public,  and  I  should  not  be  discussing  this  question. 

Much  has  been  said  about  the  man  who  works  his 
way  through  college  being  a  person  who  is  likely  to 
obtain  some  benefits  from  it ;  but  why  this  would  apply 


102    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

to  such  a  man  more  than  to  any  other  person  it  would 
be  difficult  to  explain.  He  may  possibly  get  more  out 
of  college  than  the  ordinary  run  of  men,  but  there  is 
no  particular  reason  to  imagine  that  he  would  get 
enough  more  out  of  it  to  be  of  any  particular  advan- 
tage to  him  more  than  to  the  general  run  of  people. 
Such  a  person  who  is  ambitious  and  willing  to  work, 
if  he  would  apply  the  same  energy  to  some  business, 
in  all  probability  would  make  a  marked  success. 

I  feel  sure  that  if  the  men  who  have  been  suc- 
cessful in  business  were  asked  whether  they  regretted 
starting  in  business  at  the  time  they  did,  in  place  of 
going  to  college,  and  taking  the  chances  of  afterward 
being  able  to  gain  the  success  they  have  achieved, 
all  would  answer  in  the  negative.  No  doubt,  many 
successful  men  wish  they  had  received  a  better  educa- 
tion, for  some  of  them  are  not  sufficiently  educated 
to  be  able  to  compose  a  letter  correctly  or  express 
themselves  clearly  and  properly  in  business  matters, 
and  have  not  acquired  a  taste  for  literature  and  many 
other  things  that  contribute  to  one's  happiness ;  but  I 
contend  that  a  grammar-school  education  would  have 
been  sufficient  to  place  these  men  in  the  position  they 
desire. 

COLLEGE  CONCEIT  AND  PESSIMISM. 

In  letters  received  from  students,  one  of  them  says  : 
"  I  believe  the  average  college  student  learns  to  be  a 
loafer  and  money-spender  rather  than  a  money-saver 
and  energetic  citizen  " ;  and  I  think  he  might  have 
added  that  a  course  in  college  has  a  tendency  to  make  a 
young  man  conceited  and  unpractical,  and  creates  in 
him  something  of  a  contempt  for  labor  and  for  those 
who  have  not  a  college  education. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.    103 

I  take  the  ground  that  a  young  man  who  goes  to 
college  not  only  is  not  benefited  by  it,  after  spending 
eight  years  in  time  and  $10,000  to  $12,000  in  money, 
but  is  most  decidedly  and  positively  injured  by  the 
college,  since  he  comes  out  so  conceited  that  he  is  at  a 
great  disadvantage  in  getting  into  business,  and  it 
takes  years,  and  sometimes  a  lifetime,  to  get  his  head 
back  to  a  normal  size.  So  much  flattery  and  attention 
are  often  bestowed  upon  the  college  student  that  he 
becomes  greatly  conceited  and  thinks  he  knows  it  all, 
and  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  him  to  exercise  any 
reasoning  powers.  The  whole  tendency  of  the  so-called 
"  higher  education  "  is  to  puff  the  young  man  up  with 
vanity,  causing  him  to  look  with  contempt  upon  labor, 
and  even  to  despise  his  parents ;  their  suggestions  that 
he  should  work  for  a  living  are  resented  by  him,  since 
he  expects  to  live  by  his  wits.  Then,  if  wits  fail  to 
bring  him  success,  he  becomes  pessimistic. 

OBJECT  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  remark  was  once  made  by  President  Eliot,  of 
Harvard,  that  the  object  of  education  is  to  make  people 
happy,  and  I  presume  that  this  is  its  fundamental  pur- 
pose. I  do  not  imagine,  however,  that  he  meant  by 
this  that  education  or  happiness  applies  simply  to  the 
man  who  is  well  educated  in  literature  or  languages  or 
in  the  lines  which  are  ordinarily  understood  to  give 
polish  and  enable  one  to  be  an  ornament  to  society, 
but  that  he  referred  in  a  broader  sense  to  those  per- 
sons who  are  educated  in  such  branches  as  the  arts, 
sciences,  history,  mathematics,  physics,  biology,  chem- 
istry, etc. 

Whether  he  would  go  still  further  and  include  men 
who  have  had  less  book  education  and  more  practical 


104    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

education,  such  as  is  acquired  in  manufacturing  or 
mercantile  industries,  I  am  not  sure ;  but  if  so,  his 
remark  would  include  a  large  variety  of  what  might, 
in  a  way,  be  called  educated  men.  I  do  not  suppose  he 
would  take  the  ground  that  there  is  no  happiness  in 
this  world  except  that  which  grows  out  of  the  ordinary 
college  education,  but  would  grant  that  happiness  may 
be  enjoyed  by  any  one  who  has  marked  knowledge  and 
that  it  makes  little  difference  what  branches  his  knowl- 
edge covers. 

For  illustration,  take  such  men  as  Westinghouse, 
Edison,  Cramp,  Scott,  and  hundreds  of  others  that 
might  be  mentioned.  I  contend  that  the  happiness 
which  the  most  learned  college  man  gets  out  of  life 
does  not  compare  with  that  obtained  by  these  men  from 
their  business.  The  greatest  pleasure  a  man  can  have 
is  that  which  arises  from  the  feeling  that  he  has  been  a 
success  in  a  creditable  occupation.  On  the  contrary, 
the  greatest  unhappiness  comes  from  the  knowledge 
that  one's  life  has  been  a  failure,  and  it  seems  to  me 
that  the  more  a  man  has  of  "  higher  "  education,  the 
more  severely  will  he  feel  this  failure. 

THE  MAXIMUM  OF  HAPPINESS. 

The  great  question  for  every  one  to  decide  is,  what 
kind  of  education  is  going  to  yield  him  the  most  pleas- 
ure ;  and  if  he  selects  an  occupation  of  an  educational 
character  that  proves  to  be  profitable  as  well  as  pleas- 
urable, he  certainly  has  a  better  chance  for  enjoyment 
than  would  be  the  case  if  he  took  up  a  line  of  education 
which  returned  him  little  or  no  profit. 

But  many  writers  claim  that  the  pleasure  which  a 
man  obtains  through  his  college  education  more  than 
compensates  for  the  sacrifices  which  he  has  to  make 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     105 

to  gain  such  education,  and  heretofore  I  have  been 
inclined  to  grant  part  of  this.  But  recently  I  have  been 
informed  by  a  person  who  has  had  much  experience 
and  opportunity  for  observing  the  lives  of  highly 
educated  people,  that  there  is  little  or  nothing  in  this 
theory.  He  states  that,  as  a  rule,  those  people  think  just 
as  much  of  money,  dress  and  display,  and  apparently 
are  little  more  resourceful  in  the  way  of  making  them- 
selves and  family  happy  than  those  not  so  educated; 
that  they  take  just  as  much  interest  in  worldly  matters, 
and  are  fully  as  likely  to  live  beyond  their  means  in 
order  to  gratify  their  love  of  display  as  though  there 
were  no  compensating  results  from  their  higher  educa- 
tion. If  this  be  true  of  the  highest  college-educated 
people,  where  do  those  of  only  ordinary  college  educa- 
tion get  so  much  pleasure? 

Furthermore,  many  educated  men  have  acquired, 
just  because  of  their  associations,  tastes  which  are 
beyond  their  means  ;  and  this,  of  course,  tends  to  make 
them  unhappy  more  than  anything  else. 

HAPPINESS  FROM  SUCCESS. 

No  doubt  men  of  strong  character  who  possess  suf- 
ficient means  to  enable  them  to  live  without  working 
will  enjoy  life  more  if  they  take  a  college  course.  It 
gives  them  a  standing  and  position  in  society  which 
affords  them  considerable  pleasure,  but,  of  course,  this 
does  not  concern  the  public.  At  the  same  time,  I  think 
it  is  doubtful  whether  this  class  of  men  get  more 
enjoyment  out  of  life  than  those  who  have  built  up  a 
successful  business,  yet  who  received  only  a  moderate 
education.  It  is  my  opinion  that  a  man  with  a  college 
education,  and  a  reasonably  good  income,  will  probably 
get  as  much  enjoyment  out  of  life  as  one  who  has  a 


106    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

considerably  greater  income  but  is  without  such  edu- 
cation ;  also  that  an  uneducated  man  with  a  good  reli- 
able income  will  be  happier  than  one  who  has  received 
an  education  but  possesses  a  meager  income. 

Many  of  the  college  graduates  refer  in  their  letters 
to  the  happiness  they  have  gained  from  their  college 
training  and  experience,  but  I  can  not  understand  what 
particular  reason  they  have  for  being  happy.  To  claim 
that  a  man  can  be  happy  simply  because  he  has  a  taste 
for  literature  is  taking  a  very  narrow  view  of  the  sub- 
ject. He  certainly  has  been  of  no  benefit  to  mankind, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  he  ought  to  be  happy  —  in 
fact,  just  the  contrary  should  be  the  case.  The  only 
men  entitled  to  happiness  in  this  world  are  those  who 
are  useful. 

FALSE  PRIDE. 

If,  as  will  be  noticed  later,  college  graduates  usually 
forget  a  great  part  of  what  is  taught  them  at  college, 
their  happiness  can  not  be  due  to  the  knowledge  gained 
there;  hence,  it  would  seem  as  though  it  must  come 
simply  from  the  false  pride  which  they  feel  in  having 
attended  some  prominent  institution  of  this  kind. 
Surely  the  large  number  of  students  who  did  not  reply 
to  my  inquiry  for  the  reason,  as  I  have  claimed  in 
another  part  of  this  book,  that  they  have  been  unsuc- 
cessful since  leaving  college,  can  not  have  gained  much 
happiness  from  their  college  experience.  Instead  of 
adding  to  their  pleasure  and  enjoyment  in  life,  I  think 
there  is  no  doubt  that  it  has  had  just  the  opposite  effect. 

In  letters  called  forth  by  this  investigation  much 
has  been  said  in  regard  to  money  not  being  the  whole 
thing,  and  no  doubt  there  is  considerable  truth  in  this 
statement;  many  people  become  avaricious  and  un- 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     107 

scrupulous  in  their  desire  to  obtain  wealth,  and  succeed 
in  acquiring  altogether  too  much  of  it.  At  the  same 
time  nothing  is  gained  in  a  matter  of  this  kind  by 
putting  it  in  a  false  position.  If  money  is  not  the  whole 
thing,  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  it  is  probably  sev- 
enty-five per  cent  of  the  whole  thing.  As  a  rule,  the 
fact  is  that  money  is  looked  upon  with  contempt  only 
by  those  who  have  not  got  it  and  do  not  know  how  to 
obtain  it. 

WHEN  Is  A  MAN  EDUCATED? 

One  of  the  college  graduates  remarks  that  he  has 
forgotten  nearly  everything  he  learned  at  college,  and 
that  all  the  benefit  he  received  there  was  the  "  mental 
drill."  I  have  frequently  heard  other  college  graduates 
express  themselves  in  the  same  manner,  that  they 
remembered  very  little  of  what  they  learned  in  college. 
If  this  be  true,  the  question  naturally  arises,  how  can 
such  persons  be  considered  educated?  I  should  think 
that  they  might  more  appropriately  be  classed  with  the 
uneducated. 

Even  if  a  man  has  attended  one  of  the  best  institu- 
tions of  learning  in  the  country  and  has  retained  all 
the  knowledge  that  was  taught  him  there,  I  contend 
that  he  is  not  to  be  compared  with  one  who,  though  not 
having  received  a  college  education,  is  an  extensive 
traveler,  reader  and  observer,  and  has  from  his  asso- 
ciation with  different  people  acquired  a  large  amount 
of  general  information  that  is  useful  to  himself  or  to 
the  public. 

It  is  often  claimed  that  the  college  is  a  great  place 
for  learning  self-reliance  and  for  acquiring  knowledge 
of  human  nature.  It  is  true  that  the  student  meets 
many  others  in  his  three  or  four  years  in  college,  but  it 


108    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

is  equally  true  that  students  present  a  large  degree  of 
similarity.  Generally  speaking,  the  student's  associ- 
ates are  all  like  himself,  of  about  the  same  age,  from 
the  well-to-do  and  educated  classes,  all  having  similar 
prejudices,  ideas  and  ideals. 

Furthermore,  the  college  is  a  kind  of  sheltered  nest 
where  the  young  man  grows  his  wings  protected  from 
storms  and  the  rude  jostling  of  the  crowd,  and  where 
he  breathes  an  atmosphere  of  tradition  and  sentiment 
altogether  foreign  to  that  of  the  world  of  affairs.  His 
collegiate  triumphs  are  won  with  comparative  ease  and 
bring  him  an  inordinate  amount  of  petting  from  class- 
mates and  admiring  friends,  so  that  when  it  comes  time 
for  him  to  fall  out  of  the  college  nest  into  the  hard, 
practical  world  he  has  acquired  a  most  tremendous 
opinion  of  his  own  importance. 

THE  BEST  COLLEGE  Is  THE  WORLD. 

That  this  is  true  is  proved  by  the  sickening  shock 
experienced  by  so  many  college  graduates  when  they 
strike  out  into  the  world  and  find  themselves  obliged  to 
stand  on  their  own  feet  in  the  midst  of  a  pushing  crowd 
which  has  no  awe  of  a  diploma  and  despises  culture. 
When  the  young  man  wakes  from  his  dream  and  real- 
izes the  cold  truth  that  he  is  nobody,  in  spite  of  his 
sheepskin,  one  of  two  things  happens.  If  he  has  the 
right  stuff  in  him,  he  puts  the  dream  behind  him  and 
strikes  out  manfully  for  himself  as  if  it  had  never  been ; 
but  too  often  he  persists  in  blind  self-esteem  and  goes 
through  life  a  pitiful  failure,  blaming  the  world  to  the 
last  for  refusing  to  recognize  his  superiority.  No,  the 
world  is  the  best  college  for  acquiring  knowledge  of 
all  kinds  of  human  nature  —  good,  bad  and  indifferent. 

As  for  the  "  mental  drill  "  and  discipline  that  young 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     109 

men  are  said  to  receive  at  college,  while  I  have  no 
doubt  that  there  might  be  something  in  this  if  it  were 
done  systematically  and  with  discretion,  I  claim  that  it 
does  not  begin  to  compare  with  that  which  a  man 
obtains  in  building  up  a  business  where  he  has  to  meet 
competition  and  in  hundreds  of  ways  has  to  "  rub  up 
against  the  other  fellow."  Take  also  the  man  on  the 
road  selling  goods ;  he  knows  that  if  he  returns  with- 
out having  made  sales  he  is  likely  to  be  called  upon 
pretty  sharply.  There  is  nothing  so  good  for  a  man 
or  that  will  give  him  so  much  keenness  as  being  com- 
pelled to  struggle  in  business. 

The  young  business  man  is  in  a  position  to  realize 
much  more  fully  than  the  man  in  college  possibly  can, 
the  importance  of  informing  himself  along  the  partic- 
ular lines  which  will  be  beneficial  to  him  in  his  occu- 
pation. If  he  wishes  at  any  time  to  acquire  knowledge, 
either  for  this  purpose  or  to  enable  him  to  enjoy  life 
better,  he  will  find  plenty  of  opportunities  for  doing  so 
outside  of  college,  for  teachers  can  not  supply  any 
information  that  is  not  already  contained  in  books. 

I  am  inclined  to  the  belief  that  the  real  difficulty  is 
found  not  so  much  in  the  education  taught  at  college 
as  in  the  educators  themselves,  and  in  the  ridiculous 
prominence  which  the  public  gives  to  the  various 
athletic  and  other  exhibitions  of  college  societies. 

COLLEGE  MEN  HAVE  No  SPECIAL  ABILITY. 

While  my  chief  aim  in  this  investigation  has  been 
to  show  whether  or  not  the  colleges  offer  any  advan- 
tage to  young  men  in  preparing  for  a  business  life,  the 
discussion  of  the  question  naturally  leads  up  to  vari- 
ous general  claims  that  are  made  for  higher  education, 
and  it  may  be  well  to  consider  briefly  whether  the  col- 


110    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING, 

leges  have  sufficient  merit  in  these  other  directions  to 
warrant  their  existence. 

The  great  claim  of  college  advocates  is  that  these 
institutions  are  turning  out  men  who,  by  reason  of 
their  broader  views,  greater  mental  ability  and  stronger 
character,  are  capable  of  wielding  a  larger  influence 
and  accomplishing  more  good  for  their  country  than 
those  who  have  not  received  such  an  education.  It 
will  be  found  that  this  theory  is  no  more  supported  by 
the  facts  than  is  their  claim  regarding  the  advantages 
of  a  college  education  for  business  men,  which  has 
been  completely  exploded  by  my  investigation. 

I  claim  that  there  is  no  evidence  that  college  men 
possess  higher  character  than  other  people.  In  fact, 
my  experience  with  them  in  this  investigation  would 
rather  prove  the  contrary  and  that  they  are  not  men  of 
veracity,  and  without  this  quality  I  do  not  understand 
that  men  can  have  character. 

Instead  of  the  college  having  the  effect  of  training 
and  disciplining  the  young  man's  mind  and  making  him 
better  able  to  reason  out  matters,  as  so  many  people 
claim,  the  fact  is  that  exactly  the  opposite  is  the  case. 
The  student's  head  seems  to  be  so  stuffed  with  unim- 
portant things  that  there  is  no  room  for  absorbing  use- 
ful knowledge.  In  other  words,  he  has  become  so 
theoretical  that  he  is  not  capable  of  being  practical. 
I  must  admit  that  I  find  it  difficult  to  understand  why 
this  is  so.  Education  certainly  ought  not  to  make  a 
man  stupid,  and  upon  leaving  college  he  should  have  at 
least  as  much  brains  as  when  he  entered,  besides  which 
he  should  have  acquired  some  useful  knowledge  there. 

In  addition  to  the  great  claims  that  the  advocates  of 
colleges  make  in  regard  to  the  mental  drill  and  disci- 
pline, etc.,  which  a  man  gains  by  a  course  in  college, 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.    Ill 

they  have  much  to  say  about  the  advantage  it  is  to  a 
man  in  the  way  of  research.  I  am  at  a  loss  to  under- 
stand how  there  can  be  anything  special  in  this  feature. 
As  all  libraries  have  the  various  subjects  tabulated,  I 
can  see  no  reason  why  persons  desiring  any  special 
knowledge  can  not  be  placed  in  the  way  of  finding  it 
by  the  librarians. 

EDUCATORS  Do  NOT  AGREE. 

I  contend  that  not  only  are  college-bred  men  seldom 
found  to  be  conspicuous  in  the  great  moral  questions 
affecting  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  mankind,  but 
the  superior  advantages  which  their  friends  would 
have  us  believe  they  enjoy  have  not  conferred  upon 
them  any  special  ability  for  arriving  at  the  truth  in 
important  questions.  This  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
they  are  quite  as  likely  to  be  at  variance  in  their  opin- 
ions as  the  uneducated.  A  good  illustration  x>f  this 
was  furnished  by  a  meeting  of  college  professors  at 
Detroit  some  years  ago.  Not  a  single  question  came  up 
on  which  these  men  could  agree  unanimously ;  in  fact, 
one  of  them  took  the  position  that  the  teaching  of  the 
three  R's  in  the  common  schools  was  a  great  mistake. 
The  same  condition  will  be  found  to  exist  in  all  their 
meetings. 

Recently  other  professors  have  expressed  them- 
selves as  not  at  all  in  favor  of  the  present  college 
course,  and  great  confusion  exists  among  these  edu- 
cators to-day  as  to  what  they  should  teach.  The  only 
thing  that  they  practically  do  agree  upon  is  that  the 
college  is  not  doing  the  right  kind  of  work. 

Some  college  presidents-,  apologizing  for  not  show- 
ing better  results  from  coHege  men,  make  the  statement 
that  they  can  not  make  a  whistle  out  of  a  pig's  tail. 


112    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

While  I  agree  with  them  in  this,  I  think  such  an  excuse 
comes  with  very  poor  grace  from  men  who  are  all  the 
time  taking  these  pigs'  tails  and  undertaking  to  make 
whistles  out  of  them,  consuming  their  time  and  money 
and  withholding  this  information  until  it  is  too  late. 

A  PRACTICAL  SURRENDER. 

One  of  the  best  proofs  of  the  correctness  of  my 
position  on  this  subject  is  furnished  by  the  action  of 
the  college  authorities  themselves.  On  all  sides  they 
are  hastening  to  make  good  the  very  defect  which  I 
have  been  criticizing,  by  establishing  business  courses 
as  part  of  the  regular  college  curriculum.  The  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin,  Northwestern  University,  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  and  others  have  either  begun  such 
courses  or  are  about  to  do  so.  Even  President  Jordan 
has  seen  a  great  light,  for  he  admits  that  business 
courses  might  be  included  in  college  education,  and 
declares  that  they  shall  be  adopted  in  his  institution  as 
soon  as  there  is  a  public  demand  for  them !  Which  is 
only  another  way  of  saying  that  he  does  not  propose 
to  let  any  students  get  away  if  he  can  hold  them. 

While  I  am  glad  to  see  such  a  stirring  among  the 
dry  bones,  and  shall  do  what  I  can  to  stir  them  some 
more,  at  the  same  time  I  can  not  regard  this  new 
departure  as  any  gain  to  the  public.  All  it  signifies 
is  that  the  universities,  for  the  sake  of  adding  to 
their  attendance  of  students,  are  adding  to  their  already 
sufficiently  complicated  machinery  a  department  which 
has  long  been  occupied  by  the  exclusively  business  col- 
lege, and  more  satisfactorily  than  the  university  can 
possibly  hope  to  do. 

The  only  plea  which  the  university  can  put  forward 
to  justify  an  invasion  of  the  business  college's  province 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     113 

is  that  of  giving  the  young  business  man  a  broader  edu- 
cation. But  breadth  and  theories  are  just  what  the 
young  man  does  not  need  for  business  success,  as  I 
have  already  fully  explained.  So  even  here  the  uni- 
versities are  on  the  wrong  track. 

"  COLLEGE  ARISTOCRACY." 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  so  many  well-to-do  people 
send  their  boys  to  college,  many  persons  of  moderate 
means  get  the  impression  that  it  is  an  exceedingly 
advantageous  thing  to  do.  Hence  the  enormous  sacri- 
fice made  by  many  parents  that  their  sons  may  have  a 
college  education. 

Most  of  the  well-to-do  persons  who  do  send  their 
sons  to  college  know  that  there  is  little  or  nothing  of 
value  in  the  education  received.  It  simply  is  the 
fashionable  thing  to  go  to  college,  and  so  they  send 
their  boys,  in  order  that  they  may  get  into  the  "  col- 
lege aristocracy." 

These  parents  seem  to  have  a  fear  that  their  boys 
will  have  no  social  standing  unless  they  are  graduates 
of  some  important  college.  And  if  their  boys  can  say 
in  addition  to  being  graduates  that  they  are  members 
of  some  fraternity  or  belong  to  such-and-such  a  uni- 
versity club,  their  social  position  is  assured. 

As  the  colleges  have  no  merit  as  institutions  of 
learning,  their  chief  object  seems  to  be  to  sell  certifi- 
cates that  will  enable  the  holders  to  enter  society.  But 
even  with  this  college  passport  the  holder  is  not  always 
successful. 

The  man  of  real  merit  and  real  character,  of  brains 
and  ability,  needs  no  college  diploma  to  enable  him  to 
enter  society,  nor  does  he  seek  a  place  in  society.  As 
he  really  amounts  to  something  in  himself,  society  begs 


114    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

for  his  favors  and  considers  itself  honored  if  he  should 
have  the  inclination  and  can  find  the  time  to  enter  and 
become  a  part  of  it.  It  is  the  presence  of  such  men 
within  the  inner  circles  of  the  highest  society  that 
makes  the  man  with  little  but  his  college  passport  look 
like  the  pigmy  he  is. 

College-bred  society  men,  as  a  rule,  do  not  amount 
to  anything,  and  as  they  are  graduates  from  the  "  col- 
lege aristocracy "  it  is  evident  that  the  colleges  are 
busily  engaged  in  building  up  in  this  country  —  where 
nothing  but  an  aristocracy  of  brains  should  be  recog- 
nized —  an  aristocracy  of  "  numskulls,"  or,  as  Horace 
Greeley  might  have  put  it,  an  aristocracy  of  "  horned 
cattle." 

This  pastime  may  be  all  right  for  the  sons  of  rich 
men  who  can  afford  to  make  fools  of  themselves ;  but 
it  is  nothing  short  of  a  calamity  for  the  poor  boys  who 
go  to  college  with  the  idea  that  there  is  something  in 
it,  and  who  can  not  afford  to  make  mistakes. 

This  shoddy  side  of  the  colleges  is  fostered  by  the 
fool  parents  who  crowd  to  football  games  and  college 
glee-club  concerts,  making  social  functions  of  them, 
and  doing  their  little  best  to  make  it  appear  that  the 
college  youth  is  a  superior  sort  of  person. 

The  same  is  true  to  a  large  extent  of  the  men  who 
support  the  colleges ;  and  the  college  president  deigns 
to  step  down  from  his  pedestal  long  enough  to  treat 
them  as  equals  and  to  assure  them  that  in  return  for 
their  money  he  will  "  O.  K."  them  as  being  of  good 
moral  character  and  fit  to  "  enter  society." 

So  the  college,  in  a  land  where  only  brains  and 
good  character  coupled  with  fair  play  and  industry 
should  count,  exercises,  through  its  flimsy  aristocracy, 
a  sort  of  petty  tyranny,  striving  to  dominate  the  social 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     115 

activities  of  the  people,  and  selling  its  favors  as  the 
aristocracy  of  Europe  does. 

Is  it  not  time  for  us  to  arise  and  in  the  strength  of 
our  might  thrown  off  this  miserable,  fraudulent  yoke 
of  the  colleges?  Is  it  not  time  for  all  of  us  to  realize 
that  it  is  infinitely  better  for  us  to  have  boys  who 
amount  to  something  than  boys  who  can  do  nothing 
but  shine  with  a  borrowed  light? 

COLLEGES  PATRONIZED  BY  THE  RICH. 

Probably  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  favor 
of  colleges  is  the  fact  that,  as  a  rule,  the  most  success- 
ful business  men  in  the  country  send  their  sons  there. 
But  whether  these  gentlemen  do  so  with  the  expectation 
that  the  boys  will  thereby  become  better  business  men, 
or  because  of  the  feeling  that  it  will  enable  them  to 
become  more  valuable  members  of  society  and  get 
more  enjoyment  out  of  life,  is  a  question.  As  such 
young  men  do  not  have  to  make  the  struggle  which 
their  fathers  did  to  establish  a  business,  possibly  they 
can  afford  to  indulge  in  this  luxury,  but  so  far  as  its 
benefiting  them  in  a  commercial  way  is  concerned,  I 
claim  that  the  general  results  of  education  will  apply 
to  this  class  of  young  men  as  well  as  to  others  who  go 
to  college.  We  find  large  numbers  of  college  gradu- 
ates to-day  who  have  come  into  a  thoroughly  estab- 
lished and  successful  business  that  their  fathers  had 
built  up,  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  how  they  will  turn 
out. 

The  fact  that  many  of  our  prominent  business  men 
support  colleges  probably  is  looked  upon  as  another 
argument  in  favor  of  such  institutions.  But  we  have 
no  explanation  from  these  men  as  to  whether  they 
contribute  to  colleges  because  a  thorough  investigation 


116    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

has  convinced  them  of  the  importance  of  these  institu- 
tions, or  because  in  this  way  they  fancy  they  may  get 
a  reputation,  the  "  O.  K."  of  the  college  apparently 
covering  a  multitude  of  sins  of  commission  and  of 
omission. 

Surely  these  subscribers  to  college  funds  must  know 
that  many  young  men  who  attend  these  institutions  are 
practically  ruined ;  yet  the  contributors  do  not  seem  to 
care  a  particle  how  much  damage  they  do  in  this  way 
with  their  money,  so  long  as  they  can  secure  the 
approval,  the  "  certificate  of  character,"  of  the  colleges. 

TOP-HEAVY  EDUCATION. 

It  is  strange  to  me  that  the  people  who  are  doing 
their  utmost  to  maintain  and  multiply  colleges  can 
not  see  that  they  are  making  our  educational  system 
dangerously  top-heavy.  No  wise  man  attempts  to  build 
the  upper  stories  of  his  house  until  he  has  laid  a  good, 
substantial  foundation.  Now,  the  best  foundation  for 
any  nation  is  a  good  common-school  education  for  the 
great  mass  of  the  people,  and  yet  my  misguided  friends 
are  doing  all  they  can  to  turn  their  wealth  and  influ- 
ence in  favor  of  an  education  at  the  top  at  the  expense 
of  the  bottom.  Even  admitting  all  that  is  claimed  for 
the  advantages  of  higher  education,  still  I  contend  that 
the  same  money  spent  in  educating  the  masses  up  to 
a  higher  standard  would  be  of  infinitely  more  benefit  to 
the  general  public.  We  are  never  going  to  reform 
society  from  above  downward;  it  must  be  done  from 
below  upward. 

I  know  of  nothing  that  people  go  into  so  blindly 
as  educational  enterprises.  Many  who  show  excellent 
judgment  in  other  matters  exhibit  an  incredible  lack 
of  it  when  anything  of  this  nature  is  presented  to  them. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.    117 

They  take  the  greatest  pains  to  inquire  into  the  work  of 
other  public  institutions  which  they  are  asked  to  sup- 
port, but  no  matter  what  sort  of  an  educational  scheme 
is  brought  to  them,  they  seem  to  take  it  for  granted  that 
it  possesses  merit,  and  are  ready  to  aid  it  without  ques- 
tion. When  a  person  of  high  standing  contributes  to 
the  support  of  such  enterprises,  it  is  evidence  that  he 
endorses  them.  In  so  doing,  he  assumes  great  respon- 
sibility, and  therefore  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  he  satisfy  himself  beyond  doubt  that  he  is  making 
no  mistake. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
PROFESSIONAL  MEN. 

Having-  proved  my  principal  proposition  in  the  pre- 
ceding pages,  I  will  now  ask  the  reader's  attention  to 
a  consideration  of  the  question  whether  a  college  edu- 
cation is  of  any  value  to  the  large  numbers  of  young 
men  who  afterward  take  up  some  professional  line  of 
work. 

Of  the  total  number  of  college  graduates  (about 
eight  hundred)  regarding  whom  I  have  obtained  any 
information  as  to  their  occupation,  over  seventy  per 
cent  are  in  professional  or  technical  work,  as  follows  : 

Lawyers  ...........................................  248 

Teachers  ..............  .............................  117 

Doctors  ............................................     53 

Ministers  ...........................................     J5 

Technical  ..........................................  118 


Would  it  not  have  been  much  better  for  these  young 
men  if,  instead  of  attending  the  regular  college,  they 
had  gone  to  some  of  the  special  schools  that  are  estab- 
lished for  the  particular  purpose  of  educating  people 
in  these  lines? 

LAWYERS. 

It  has  been  brought  out  incidentally  in  this  investi- 
gation that  more  than  twenty-five  per  cent  of  college 
graduates  go  into  law.  These  added  to  the  already 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     119 

overcrowded  field  make  it  more  and  more  difficult  for 
an  honest  lawyer  to  earn  a  decent  living.  Thus  the 
temptation  to  be  unscrupulous  becomes  almost  irre- 
sistible, and  the  result  is  a  hundredfold  more  injurious 
to  the  community  than  the  higher  education  can  be 
beneficial. 

A  reputable  lawyer  has  stated  to  me  that,  in  his 
opinion,  the  average  yearly  income  of  country  lawyers 
is  not  over  $600,  and  of  city  lawyers  $1,200.  This 
would  be  an  objectionable  state  of  things,  even  if 
honor  and  education  always  went  together ;  but,  unfor- 
tunately, educated  men  are  quite  as  likely  to  use  their 
education  for  evil  purposes  as  those  who  are  unedu- 
cated, and  this  is  particularly  true  of  lawyers  and  pub- 
lic speakers. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  go  into  our  courts  of 
so-called  justice  almost  any  day  in  the  week  in  order  to 
see  how  lawyers  use  the  education  they  have  received 
to  assist  them  in  defeating  the  ends  of  justice  and  in 
robbing  people  of  their  rights  and  money.  In  like 
manner  a  well-educated  speaker  is  often  able  to  over- 
throw the  arguments  and  thwart  all  the  efforts  of  a  less 
brilliant  man  who  is  advocating  a  noble  cause.  If  a 
little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing,  how  much  worse 
is  a  great  deal  of  learning  in  unscrupulous  hands. 

I  fail  to  see,  therefore,  why  the  people  who  support 
colleges  should  feel  that  they  are  doing  any  good  by 
furnishing  the  facilities  for  producing  so  many  law- 
yers. For  myself,  I  should  as  soon  think  of  putting 
money  into  a  scheme  for  spreading  smallpox  as  into 
any  institution  for  turning  out  lawyers,  for  they  are 
the  great  curse  of  our  country  to-day.  Even  the  edu- 
cators, some  of  them,  have  begun  to  wake  up  to  the 
suspicion  that  they  have  been  making  a  big  mistake 


120    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

somewhere,  and  I  have  seen  it  admitted  in  some  of  their 
public  addresses  that  it  has  been  a  great  waste  for  col- 
lege work  to  produce  such  a  quantity  of  lawyers  and 
doctors  for  whom  there  is  no  demand  or  necessity. 

The  amount  of  education  that  people  should  be 
taxed  to  support  is  simply  what  is  required  to  make 
them  good  citizens  and  also  to  make  them  self-support- 
ing, and  the  kind  that  will  tend  indirectly  to  benefiting 
the  public.  It  ought  not  to  be  pursued  beyond  what  it 
is  perfectly  clear  the  public  will  derive  results  from. 

I  do  not  think  this  country  is  suffering  from  the 
want  of  scientific  men,  so  there  is  no  occasion  to 
encourage  education  at  public  expense  on  that  ground. 
Then,  we  certainly  should  not  be  taxed  for  turning  out 
common  doctors,  as  we  already  have  too  many  of  these. 

Nor  are  we  suffering  for  the  want  of  any  other 
professional  men,  so  far  as  I  know. 

It  is  particularly  an  outrage  on  the  public  to  be 
compelled  to  support  the  incompetent  persons  that  are 
turned  out  by  these  higher  educational  institutions, 
such  as  the  unnecessary  doctors  and  the  rascally  law- 
yers that  come  from  these  schools. 

In  other  words,  it  is  an  outrage  for  people  to  be 
compelled  to  support  these  institutions  and  afterward 
to  support  the  imbeciles,  sharks  and  dead-beats  that 
they  turn  out. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

COLLEGE  EDUCATION  AND  CHARACTER 
BUILDING. 

Since  the  second  printing  of  this  first  part  of  my 
investigations  on  education,  I  have  observed  in  my 
talks  with  college  advocates  that  they  apparently  have 
abandoned  the  idea  that  college-educated  men  have  any 
especial  merit  in  business.  Perhaps  it  is  for  this  reason 
they  are  falling  back  on  what  might  be  called  their 
"  side  shows." 

Furthermore,  as  we  now  hear  little  talk  about  the 
"  mental  drill  "  given  by  a  college  course,  we  may  con- 
clude that  this  also  is  an  exploded  idea  which  soon  may 
have  the  company  of  that  other  claim  that  the  college 
is  a  great  place  for  the  development  and  improvement 
of  character. 

Doubtless,  the  less  the  college  men  say  on  this  latter 
point  the  better  for  them ;  for  I  know  of  none  of  the 
absurd  claims  made  by  the  colleges  that  is  more  diffi- 
cult to  prove  than  this.  In  fact,  the  opposite  proposi- 
tion—  that  college  life  actually  does  irreparable  injury 
to  character  —  may  be  established  much  more  readily. 

In  this  claim  to  character  building  the  college  cham- 
pions seem  to  think  they  are  behind  a  stone  wall  which 
can  not  be  battered  down,  as  it  appears  to  be  difficult 
to  furnish  proof  to  refute  their  statements.  But  it 
appears  to  me  that  it  is  incumbent  upon  them  to  offer 
some  substantial  evidence  to  justify  this  expenditure 


122    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

for  higher  education ;  that  is,  they  ought  to  be  able 
and  eager  to  show  that  they  have  produced  many  men 
of  substantial  character,  who  are  doing  good  in  the 
world. 

But  even  suppose  we  admit  that  colleges  build  up 
character,  what  does  it  amount  to  commercially?  Is 
there  any  truth  in  the  claim  that  the  young  man's  busi- 
ness chances  are  thereby  improved?  I  know  of  no 
evidence  that  college  graduates  are  in  demand  because 
of  their  superior  character,  and  no  one  has  ventured 
to  make  such  a  claim. 

HAVE  COLLEGIANS  SUPERIOR  CHARACTER? 

If  it  be  a  fact  that  collegians  possess  superior  char- 
acter, it  seems  to  me  that  one  of  two  things  must  be 
true  —  either  business  men  can  not  see  that  they  have 
it,  or  men  of  character  are  not  in  demand  for  business. 

What  does  it  profit  a  young  man  to  find  that  his 
expensive  education  has  only  furnished  something 
which  is  of  no  help  to  him  when  he  comes  to  seek  a 
business  position  ? 

Surely  it  is  a  great  waste  to  invest  in  so  much  char- 
acter if  there  is  no  market  for  it. 

How  discouraging  it  must  be  for  the  college  grad- 
uate to  be  obliged  to  pose  as  a  monument  of  education, 
with  such  superior  character  and  such  superior  knowl- 
edge, when  those  upon  whom  he  must  depend  for 
employment  tell  him  that,  although  he  may  have  edu- 
cation and  character,  and  be  a  brilliant  ornament  and 
benefit  to  society,  they  have  no  use  for  him  in  business. 

It  is  asking  too  much  of  a  poor  young  man  to  sacri- 
fice so  much  time  and  get  no  return  for  his  investment. 

Perhaps  college  advocates  may  say  that  business 
men  now  do  not  want  men  of  character,  and  infer  that 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     123 

they  prefer  a  different  class  of  men ;  but  it  will  not 
do  to  assume  that  such  is  the  case  generally.  Many 
business  men  have  positions  in  which  persons  of  good 
character  are  valuable,  even  though  the  possessors  of 
such  character  may  not  have  much  business  ability. 

It  should  be  plain  that  if  the  colleges  expect  to  work 
along  this  line  of  producing  men  of  character,  they 
should  point  out  to  the  students  the  grandeur  of  this 
class  of  men,  and  impress  upon  them  in  every  possible 
way  that  they  ought  to  have  high  aims  in  life  and  that, 
while  men  of  character  may  not  be  very  great  money- 
makers, they  are  the  class  of  people  who  are  highly 
respectable  and  probably  get  more  comfort  and  enjoy- 
ment out  of  life  than  unscrupulous  money-makers  who 
have  acquired  large  fortunes. 

WHAT  STUDENTS  SHOULD  BE  WARNED  AGAINST. 

They  also  should  warn  the  students  against  men 
who  have  attained  great  success,  financially  or  socially, 
through  dishonest  or  improper  methods,  and  show  that 
such  people  are  really  not  respectable  and  have  no 
standing  in  the  community. 

Of  course,  there  is  nothing  about  the  conducting  of 
a  college  that  is  especially  aimed  at  improving  charac- 
ter, and  there  is  nothing  for  this  claim  to  stand  upon 
except  the  idea  that  people  who  have  education  must 
necessarily  have  character.  There  is  no  pretension  of 
any  course  of  study  or  instruction  to  convince  the  stu- 
dent that  "  honesty  is  the  best  policy  "  and  that  it  pays 
to  have  character. 

Now,  my  theory  is  that  character  depends  upon  two 
things.  First,  it  is  a  question  of  "  blood,"  that  is  to 
say,  of  heredity.  Secondly,  it  is  the  result  of  good 
training,  especially  in  the  home.  Young  men  have  to 


124    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

be  made  to  see  that  character  is  a  real  substantial  asset 
in  a  man's  life.  It  undoubtedly  can  be  developed,  but 
this  requires  persistent,  systematic  and  judicious  train- 
ing. 

Let  us  see  what  the  probability  is  of  character  being 
improved  or  injured  by  this  change  in  a  young  man's 
life  from  near-home  influences  to  those  of  the  college. 
Before  going  to  college  it  is  presumed  that  he  lived  at 
home,  where  he  was  under  the  anxious  and  constant 
care  of  his  parents,  and  perhaps  also  of  sisters  and 
brothers,  who  have  the  greatest  interest  in  him  and 
who  did  everything  they  could  to  keep  him  in  the  right 
path. 

THE  INDIFFERENCE  OF  THE  COLLEGE. 

He  leaves  all  this  and  goes  to  college,  where  he  is 
thrown  absolutely  upon  his  own  resources.  The  col- 
lege practically  says  to  him : 

"  Here  you  are,  a  man,  and  old  enough  to  realize 
that  you  have  to  stand  upon  your  own  feet.  If  you  are 
disposed  to  go  to  the  bad,  it  is  entirely  your  own  affair." 

What  must  be  the  natural  and  necessary  conse- 
quence when  several  thousands  of  young  men  are 
brought  together  at  the  most  restless  and  indiscreet 
period  of  life,  many  of  them  with  too  much  money  and 
spare  time  at  their  command,  and  suddenly  freed  from 
all  the  restraining  and  guiding  influences  of  home  ? 

The  public  is  too  familiar  with  the  result  —  hazing, 
painful  and  humiliating  initiations,  scrapes,  and  dev- 
iltry of  various  kinds,  all  done  under  the  pretext  of 
"  fun."  That  is  what  the  people  of  college  towns  well 
know  may  be  expected  frequently  from  these  young 
"  gentlemen "  who  are  acquiring  such  a  high  moral 
character  at  a  large  expense. 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     125 

A  youth  at  college  has  so  much  leisure  time  on  his 
hands,  and  associates  with  so  many  wild  boys,  that  he 
is  very  likely  to  get  into  bad  habits.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  boy  who  goes  to  work,  finds  that  there  is  no  time 
for  deviltry  in  an  office  or  store.  There  is  nothing  so 
demoralizing  as  idleness,  and  nothing  so  tends  to  keep 
a  young  man  out  of  deviltry  as  work. 

Under  such  conditions,  and  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
there  is  no  specific  attempt  made  by  the  colleges  to  teach 
morals,  it  does  not  require  a  great  stretch  of  the 
imagination  to  see  that  the  young  man  is  likely  to  leave 
college  with  much  less  character  than  when  he  entered. 

Many  college  students,  even  though  they  have  char- 
acter, do  not  seem  to  be  disposed  to  make  good  use 
of  it.  They  hold  themselves  superior  to  other  people, 
and  do  not  want  to  contaminate  themselves  by  associat- 
ing with  others  whom  they  consider  to  be  "  out  of  their 
class." 

DANGER  OF  EXCLUSIVENESS. 

President  Hadley,  of  Yale,  in  one  of  his  annual 
reports,  commented  on  the  dangers  of  this  social 
exclusiveness  among  the  rich  students,  who  shun  the 
university  dormitories  and  live  together  in  outside 
buildings. 

A  few  years  ago,  the  University  Club  of  New  York 
erected  a  new  clubhouse,  which,  it  seems  to  me,  was 
the  most  extravagant  and  unjustifiable  expenditure  of 
money  that  I  ever  saw.  While  I  do  not  know  what  the 
young  men  do  in  this  club,  I  have  not  the  slightest  idea 
that  they  study  economics  or  what  can  be  done  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind.  But  I  am  inclined  to  think  they 
do  there  the  same  as  people  do  in  all  other  clubs ;  that 
is,  their  only  idea  is  to  have  a  good  time. 


126    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

But  I  do  know  that  no  body  of  men,  however  great 
their  character  may  be,  can  ever  make  that  character  a 
public  benefit  if  they  separate  themselves  by  luxury  and 
exclusiveness  from  their  fellow  men. 

Many  young  men  who  have  gone  to  college  seem 
to  be  inclined  to  be  snobbish,  and  to  look  upon  the 
industrious  masses  with  contempt.  They  prefer  to  live 
off  the  hard  earnings  of  their  parents  instead  of  going 
to  work.  In  all  this  it  seems  to  me  they  show  an  utter 
lack  of  character. 

Even  in  its  general  sense  it  is  an  open  question 
whether  education  can  be  credited  seriously  with  char- 
acter building.  It  is  a  historical  fact  that  the  uncivi- 
lized races  appear  to  have  better  characters  than  the 
civilized.  Instances  of  this  are  numerous,  both  in  the 
past  and  the  present. 

Cortez,  when  he  invaded  Mexico,  and  Pizarro,  when 
he  took  possession  of  Peru,  found  a  race  of  people 
whose  character  was  far  superior  to  the  Spanish,  not- 
withstanding that  the  latter  was  the  most  highly  edu- 
cated nation  at  that  time.  The  strangers  were  received 
with  honor,  hospitality  and  childlike  confidence,  which 
the  invaders  repaid  with  perfidy  and  outrage. 

The  people  whom  Captain  Cook  discovered  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands  appear  to  have  been  far  better  mor- 
ally than  himself  and  the  men  who  accompanied  him. 

A  COMPARISON  WITH  SAVAGES. 

In  this  country,  the  Indians  were  more  honest  and 
truthful,  and  had  higher  qualities  of  character,  than 
many  of  our  forefathers.  It  is  easy  to  believe  that  a 
great  many  of  the  earlier  white  traders  had  no  charac- 
ter to  speak  of  in  comparison  with  the  aborigines.  The 
best  evidence  that  the  Indians  of  those  days  were  hon- 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     127 

orable  and  upright  is  the  fact  that  William  Penn,  who 
paid  them  for  their  lands  and  treated  them  fairly,  had 
no  trouble  with  them ;  it  was  only  people  who  ill- 
treated  them  that  got  into  difficulty. 

Mr.  Martin  Ryerson,  of  Chicago,  who  had  a  large 
amount  of  experience  with  Indians  in  the  early  days, 
felt  that  they  were  men  of  superior  character.  This 
was  impressed  upon  him  so  strongly,  that  he  erected 
an  expensive  monument  to  their  memory  in  Lincoln 
Park. 

Let  us  contrast  these  primitive  peoples  with  a  con- 
spicuous class  of  college  students  and  college  graduates 
that  is  supposed  to  represent  modern  civilization. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  know  all  of  the  promi- 
nent men  of  Chicago  back  in  the  fifties,  and  many  of 
them  I  knew  well.  I  recall  all  of  them  as  men  of 
integrity  and  of  the  highest  type  of  character.  I  hap- 
pen to  have  seen  how  not  a  few  of  the  sons  of  these 
men,  who  had  been  sent  to  college,  turned  out  in  later 
years.  It  taxes  my  memory  to  find  any  considerable 
number  of  these  young  men  who  have  shown  either  the 
ability  or  the  sterling  character  of  their  parents  in  their 
business  careers. 

WHY  Do  STUDENTS  DEGENERATE? 

In  an  address  given  before  the  National  Education 
Association  at  Denver  in  July  of  this  year  ( 1909),  Dean 
Fordyce,  of  the  University  of  Nebraska,  asked :  "  Why 
is  it  that  a  young  man  degenerates  within  six  months 
after  he  enters  college?"  The  Lincoln,  Nebraska, 
News,  commenting  on  this  significant  question,  says : 
"  Lincoln  is  a  college  town  and  it  ought  to  know  the 
answer."  It  probably  does;  so  does  Ann  Arbor,  and 


128    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

Boston,  and  Madison,  and  Montreal,  and  New  Haven, 
and  other  college  towns. 

The  Dean's  own  answer  was  this :  "  They  have 
been  going  to  a  secondary  school  under  a  home  influ- 
ence. They  come  to  college  as  their  own  masters  and 
in  a  few  months  they  fall  under  the  alluring  vices  con- 
stantly flaunted  before  their  eyes." 

Let  New  Haven  tell  us  what  some  of  these  vices 
are.  In  the  daily  papers  of  July  8,  1909,  there  was  a 
despatch  bearing  the  New  Haven  date  line  in  which  a 
local  minister  made  the  assertion  that  "  over  two  thou- 
sand disreputable  women  are  living  in  New  Haven." 

Some  years  ago  I  employed  a  detective  to  investi- 
gate the  conduct  of  the  students  at  Harvard.  The 
details  of  this  investigation  are  too  disgusting  to  be 
published  in  this  book,  but  they  showed  conditions 
equally  as  bad  as  those  attributed  above  to  New  Haven. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing,  I  think  that  any  one  who 
would  dare  to  pretend  that  the  colleges  have  a  ten- 
dency to  build  up  character  would  be  putting  a  low 
estimate  upon  the  intelligence  of  the  public. 

That  my  views  on  this  subject  of  character  and 
education  are  borne  out  by  the  observations  of  other 
men  who  have  gone  deeply  into  it,  may  be  seen  in  this 
quotation  from  Herbert  Spencer: 

HERBERT  SPENCER'S  OPINION. 

"  Education,  regarded  as  a  panacea  for  political 
and  social  life,  is  a  universal  delusion,  and  the  fact 
should  be  made  sufficiently  clear  by  a  survey  of  your 
daily  newspapers.  The  current  theory  is  that  if  the 
young  are  taught  what  is  right,  and  the  reasons  why 
it  is  right,  they  will  do  what  is  right  when  they  grow 
up.  But  considering  what  religious  teachers  have  been 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     129 

doing  these  two  thousand  years,  it  seems  to  me  that 
all  history  is  against  the  conclusion." 

The  colleges  do  not  mold  or  develop  or  encourage 
the  molding  or  development  of  character;  but  that 
they  should  do  so  is  the  opinion  of  many  leading  edu- 
cators. It  was  at  a  convention  of  the  National  Edu- 
cation Association,  held  in  Boston  some  years  ago, 
that  Presidents  Harris  of  Amherst,  Tucker  of  Dart- 
mouth, Slocum  of  Colorado,  and  Bishop  Caller  of 
Tennessee,  expressed  the  same  opinion  to  the  effect 
that  the  colleges  must  concern  themselves  with  the 
moral  education  of  their  students. 

That  his  moral  education  is  in  no  way  connected 
with  an  academic  education  is  abundantly  evident  from 
the  opinion  of  Spencer,  the  conditions  of  college  life 
given  here  and  the  arguments  I  have  advanced  against 
the  absurd  claim  that  the  colleges  do  encourage  the 
formation  of  good  character. 

It  must  be  evident  that  everything  depends  upon 
the  nature  of  the  man  who  receives  the  education.  If 
he  is  bad,  education  simply  places  in  his  hands  a 
greater  power  for  the  working  of  evil. 

CHARACTER  THAT  FOOTBALL  BUILDS. 

Character  is  developed  through  struggle  and 
encouraged  by  example.  There  is  not  much  of 
struggle  in  modern  college  life,  except  that  of  the  foot- 
ball field,  and  any  one  who  considers  this  a  fit  place 
for  the  development  of  good  character  must  have  a 
mental  vision  sadly  out  of  focus. 

Compared  with  modern  college  football  the  Spanish 
bull-fight  is  a  fair  and  wholesome  sport.  Theoret- 
ically, football  is  played  with  eleven  men  against 


130    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

eleven  ;  practically,  it  is  often  eleven  against  one  —  and 
that  one  down.  There  is  nothing  generous  in  the 
game.  Brute  force  rules  every  play,  and  the  cowardli- 
ness of  uneven  numbers  and  unmatched  weights  is 
characteristic  of  every  gridiron  contest.  How  can  any 
human  person,  any  lover  of  fair  play,  take  enjoyment 
out  of  watching  a  game  in  which  a  dozen  or  more 
husky  brutes  pile  themselves  in  a  heap,  kicking  and 
tearing  at  one  another  like  cats  and  dogs,  and  crushing 
the  life  out  of  some  poor  fellow  who  chances  to  be 
underneath?  Manly  sport,  isn't  it,  that  sends  boys 
from  the  field  maimed  by  the  weight  of  unfair  num- 
bers, broken  by  the  kicks  of  heavy  boots,  far  too  often 
fatally  crushed ;  and  all  for  the  glory  of  alma  mater ! 
Heaven  save  the  mark ! 

It  is  estimated  that  about  twenty-five  or  thirty 
persons  have  been  fatally  injured  this  year  in  the 
game  of  football,  but  as  this  happened  in  the  name  of 
"  education,"  no  one  is  punished  for  it.  The  public 
appears  to  look  upon  it  as  being  all  right  and  an  evi- 
dence of  culture,  character  and  civilization. 

If  a  man  is  killed  intentionally  in  any  other  way, 
some  one  either  is  hung  or  goes  to  the  penitentiary 
for  the  crime;  but  when  murder  is  committed  in  this 
brutal  game,  the  murderer  not  only  goes  unpunished, 
but  is  lionized  by  the  admirers  of  the  sport. 

When  the  little  son  of  Rev.  John  H.  Barrows  was 
in  a  delirium  just  before  his  death  from  injuries 
received  in  a  football  game,  he  was  heard  to  say :  "  It 
was  a  shame  for  that  big  boy  to  kick  me  so."  What 
sort  of  a  man  will  the  boy  become  who  caused  the 
death  of  this  little  fellow?  What  an  example  is  this 
of  the  results  that  come  from  the  encouragement  of 
this  game  and  of  giving  to  young  boys  the  impression 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     131 

that  it  is  manly  and  proper  to  kill  those  smaller  than 
themselves. 

The  character  developed  by  college  football  is  the 
character  of  the  brute,  the  character  of  the  coward, 
the  character  of  everything  that  is  what  a  man  and  a 
gentleman  can  not  be.  And  those  who  encourage  this 
"  sport "  encourage  brutality  and  cowardice  of  the 
lowest  sort  known  to  humanity. 

I  take  it  that  the  prime  requisites  of  good  charac- 
ter are  truthfulness  and  honesty.  The  tendencies 
opposed  to  these  destroy  character. 

CHARACTER  TESTED  BY  DEEDS. 

I  claim  that  education  has  not  had  the  effect  of 
giving  the  general  run  of  college  presidents  and  advo- 
cates character  of  this  sort.  It  is  clear  to  me  that  these 
persons  are  not  honest  or  truthful,  and  that  they  are 
making  a  systematic  business  of  deceiving  the  public 
and  their  students.  They  are  continually  putting  the 
importance  of  a  college  education  before  the  public  in 
an  unjustifiable  manner.  Therefore,  if  these  persons 
have  not  character  themselves,  they  can  not  be  good 
teachers  for  young  men  who  wish  to  have  their  char- 
acters improved. 

The  universities  have  been  doing  much  in  the  way 
of  seeking  large  numbers  of  students  without  being 
particular  as  to  their  qualifications.  They  are  not  at 
all  particular  who  they  take  in,  so  long  as  they  can  get 
the  numbers. 

We  sometimes  hear  these  educators  speak  of  the 
"  tricks  of  trade  "  that  those  who  are  educated  would 
not  stoop  to  practice. 

I  believe  I  have  shown  that  they  are  not  lacking 
themselves  in  "  tricks  of  trade,"  so  long  as  they  con- 


132    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

tinue  to  present  the  college  as  an  unusually  good  place 
for  the  molding  and  development  of  character. 

THE  VERDICT  OF  DR.  VIRCHOW. 

(Extract  from  "  The  Curse  of  Education,"  by  Harold 
Gorst,  an  English  observer  and  writer.) 

At  the  Berlin  conference  on  secondary  education,  held 
in  1890,  Dr.  Virchow  observed: 

"I  regret  that  I  can  not  bear  my  testimony  to  our 
having  made  progress  in  forming  the  character  of  pupils 
in  our  schools.  When  I  look  back  over  the  forty  years 
during  which  I  have  been  professor  and  examiner  —  a 
period  during  which  I  have  been  brought  in  contact  not 
only  with  physicians  and  scientific  investigators,  but  also 
with  many  other  types  of  men  —  I  can  not  say  that  I  have 
the  impression  that  we  have  made  material  advances  in 
training  up  men  with  strength  of  character.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  fear  that  we  are  on  the  downward  path.  The 
number  of  '  characters '  becomes  smaller.  And  this  is 
connected  with  the  shrinkage  in  private  and  individual 
work  during  a  lad's  school  life.  For  it  is  only  by  means 
of  independent  work  that  the  pupil  learns  to  hold  his 
own  against  external  difficulties,  and  to  find  in  his  own 
strength,  in  his  own  nature,  in  his  own  being,  the  means 
of  resisting  such  difficulties  and  of  prevailing  over  them." 

CHARACTER  IN  THE  MEDICAL  PROFESSION. 

This  question  of  character  is  one  on  which  there  is 
considerable  difference  of  opinion,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
obtain  absolutely  clear  evidence  on  either  side. 

Recently,  however,  I  came  across  a  case  that  goes 
a  long  way  toward  proving  that  the  educated  and  cul- 
tured class  are  fully  as  lacking  in  character  as  the 
most  unscrupulous  among  the  uneducated.  I  refer 
here  to  the  Rush  Medical  College,  of  Chicago,  and  the 
Chicago  Medical  College.  Both  of  these  institutions 
at  one  time  had  on  their  faculties  nearly  all  of  the 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     133 

most  prominent  physicians  in  Chicago,  and  yet  they 
made  a  practice  of  accepting  as  students  young  men 
who  had  very  little  general  education  to  begin  with, 
and,  after  a  two  years'  course,  turned  them  loose  on 
the  public  as  full-fledged  doctors. 

Can  anyone  imagine  a  more  contemptible,  grasp- 
ing, money-making  enterprise  than  that?  I  do  not 
believe  there  can  be  found  anywhere  a  business  man 
so  unscrupulous  that  he  would  resort  to  such  despicable 
practice  as  that. 

I  look  upon  a  man  who  knocks  another  down  and 
robs  him  of  his  money  as  a  high-grade  thief  in  com- 
parison with  the  dishonest  doctors  that  are  conducting 
these  medical  schools.  Doubtless  it  is  not  a  small  thing 
to  deprive  a  person  of  his  money,  but  to  turn  out  doc- 
tors that  do  not  possess  one-quarter  the  amount  of 
medical  education  they  ought  to  have,  and  to  furnish 
them  with  certificates  permitting  them  to  tamper  with 
the  health  of  a  human  being  is,  in  my  opinion,  infi- 
nitely worse.  After  such  a  startling  exhibit  as  this, 
what  becomes  of  the  theory  that  higher  schooling  tends 
to  produce  character  ? 

I  greatly  regret  being  compelled  to  make  such 
unpleasant  statements  concerning  the  doctors  con- 
nected with  these  medical  colleges,  for  many  of  them 
were  my  particular  friends,  whom  I  associated  with 
for  years  and  I  became  greatly  attached  to  them.  In 
such  an  important  matter  as  this,  however,  I  feel  that 
the  public  is  entitled  to  all  the  facts. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  MAKING  OF  STATESMEN  AND 
ORATORS. 

It  is  evident  that  those  who  laid  the  foundations 
for  this  republic  considered  it  essential  to  the  perpetu- 
ation of  our  institutions  and  form  of  government  that 
schools  should  be  established  for  the  education  of 
statesmen  and  the  better  equipment  of  orators.  But 
when  we  look  at  the  first  century  of  our  history,  and 
pick  out  the  really  great  and  strong  men  who  took 
prominent  part  in  public  affairs,  we  are  struck  by  the 
fact  that  the  majority  of  them  received  little  or  none 
of  such  higher  education  as  the  country  then  provided, 
and  some  of  them  did  not  have  the  advantages  even 
of  the  very  limited  public  education  of  those  earlier 
days. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  travel  over  the  whole  country 
to  establish  this  point ;  so  I  shall  take  only  one  State  — 
Illinois  —  as  an  illustration  of  what  has  been  done  in 
the  way  of  producing  notable  statesmen  and  orators 
without  the  help  of  higher  schooling,  and  at  a  time 
when  free  public  schools  had  not  become  a  statewide 
institution. 

The  Act  of  Congress,  which  enabled  Illinois  to  pre- 
pare for  statehood,  provided  that  section  sixteen  of 
every  township  should  be  "  for  the  use  of  schools." 
There  also  were  provisions  for  the  establishment  of  a 
State  university  and  a  seminary.  In  1825,  Senator 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     135 

Joseph  Duncan's  Free-school  Act  was  passed,  provid- 
ing for  local  and  State  taxation.  There  was  consider- 
able protest  against  this  law,  especially  among  the 
farmers,  the  contention  being  that  these  schools  would 
take  the  boys  away  from  the  farm.  To  meet  these 
objections,  the  Legislature  of  1827  amended  the  Dun- 
can Act,  so  that  no  person  should  be  taxed  for  school 
purposes  without  consent,  but  that  persons  residing  in 
the  limits  of  a  school  district  should  have  the  privilege 
of  subscribing  for  the  support  and  establishment  of 
the  school,  and  the  rents  and  profits  of  any  school 
lands  within  the  boundaries  of  the  township  were  to 
be  assigned  and  appropriated  for  the  use  of  the  school 
under  the  superintendence  of  trustees. 

EARLY  EDUCATION  IN  ILLINOIS. 

It  was  not  until  1854  that  the  office  of  State  Super- 
intendent of  Schools  was  established,  and  with  it  a 
complete  system  of  free  public  schools.  And  it 
remained  for  the  constitution  of  1870  to  "  provide  a 
thorough  and  efficient  system  of  free  schools,  whereby 
all  children  of  this  State  may  receive  a  good  common- 
school  education." 

From  these  facts  it  must  be  evident  that  during  the 
most  important  formative  period  of  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois the  people  had  no  definite  free-school  system  and 
nothing  worth  mentioning  in  the  way  of  higher  school- 
ing. Yet,  it  was  just  this  period  that  gave  to  the  State 
and  to  the  nation  a  notable  array  of  some  of  the 
strongest  statesmen  and  orators  that  this  country  has 
known. 

I  am  aware  that  not  all  of  these  were  born  sons  of 
Illinois,  but  with  few  exceptions  their  school  advan- 
tages were  not  superior  to  those  offered  by  this  State 


136    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

during  the  time  they  developed  into  leading  and  domi- 
nant public  figures.  We  must  consider  these  men,  as 
a  whole,  far  superior  in  all  that  constitutes  true  states- 
manship to  those  who  came  after  and  who  had  much 
larger  opportunities  for  securing  both  public  and  higher 
school  education. 

How  MUCH  SCHOOLING  is  ENOUGH. 

Another  interesting  point  arises  in  connection  with 
this  glimpse  at  the  earlier  educational  history  of  Illi- 
nois, and  that  is:  how  much  schooling  may  be  con- 
sidered enough  for  a  person's  good? 

There  always  will  be  a  wide  difference  of  opinion  on 
this  question,  ranging  all  the  way  from  those  who 
believe  no  schooling  at  all  to  be  best,  to  those  who 
believe  one  can  not  have  too  much. 

In  the  former  class  we  still  have  many  of  our 
farmers,  which  must  be  evidenced  from  the  present 
low  order  of  country  public  schools.  The  Illinois 
farmers  of  1825,  who  believed  that  the  very  smallest 
amount  of  education  tended  to  take  boys  from  the 
farms  and  to  unfit  them  for  farming,  would  find  com- 
pany among  the  farmers  to-day.  For  it  is  an  indis- 
putable fact  that  schools  draw  the  farm  lad  to  the 
village,  thence  to  the  town,  thence  to  the  city,  each 
move  in  search  of  schooling  taking  him  farther  and 
farther  from  the  farm. 

Really  this  educational  problem  places  the  farmer 
between  the  devil  and  the  deep  sea.  It  is  necessary 
that  every  boy  in  the  land  be  given  enough  education 
to  enable  him  to  exercise  the  franchise  intelligently, 
that  he  may  be  a  good  and  useful  citizen.  But  if  even 
this  reasonable  amount  of  education  draws  boys  from 
the  farm,  how  far  may  we  go  in  censuring  the  farmers 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     137 

if,  in  sheer  self-defense,  they  show  an  unfriendly  front 
even  to  efforts  to  bring  the  district  schools  somewhat 
nearer  to  what  they  should  be  ? 

In  view  of  this  condition  I  can  not  see  how  the 
higher  educators  can  hope  to  secure  the  support  of  the 
farmers  even  for  agricultural  education,  for  this  would 
be  asking  them  to  encourage  a  course  that  draws  their 
boys  from  the  farm,  and  unfits  them  not  only  for  the 
life  and  work  of  the  farm,  but  for  all  other  forms 
of  industry. 


CHAPTER    XL 
SOME  VIEWS  OF  OTHER  INVESTIGATORS. 

"  At  the  mouth  of  two  witnesses,  or  at  the  mouth 
of  three  witnesses,  shall  the  thing  be  established."  I 
present  here  the  testimony  of  several  witnesses,  men 
who  have  investigated  this  question  of  higher  schooling 
and  have  reached  conclusions  on  a  number  of  essen- 
tial points  practically  the  same  as  my  own. 

"  THE  DISADVANTAGES  OF  EDUCATION." 

(Excerpts  from  an  article  in  "  The  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury" giving  a  study  of  the  results  of  special  and  advanced 
education  in  England.) 

While  educational  enthusiasts  in  and  out  of  politics 
are  strenuously  advocating  the  "training"  of  leaders  of 
men  in  every  field  of  human  activity,  it  is  useful  to  con- 
sider occasionally  the  limitations  of  education,  and  to 
remember  how  few  of  the  leaders  of  men  have  been 
"trained"  to  their  leadership  by  third  parties,  either  in 
schools  or  otherwise. 

It  is  an  old  experience  that  the  most  prominent  men 
in  nearly  every  province  of  human  activity  have  been 
amateurs,  and  that  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  amateurs 
and  not  professionals  are  selected  to  rule  our  great  pub- 
lic departments.  Our  great  administrators  have  nearly 
all  been  amateurs  and  autodidacts.  To  take  a  few  of  the 
best-known  examples :  Cromwell  was  a  farmer,  Warren 
Hastings  and  Clive  were  clerks,  Mr.  Chamberlain  was 
brought  up  for  trade,  Lord  Goschen  for  commerce,  and 
Lord  Cromer  for  the  army.  Other  countries  have  had 
the  same  experience  with  self-taught  amateurs.  Prince 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.    139 

Bismarck  was  brought  up  for  law,  failed  twice  to  pass 
his  examination,  became  a  country  squire,  and  drifted 
without  any  training  into  the  Prussian  diplomatic  serv- 
ice and  the  cabinet,  and  founded  the  German  Empire. 
George  Washington  was  a  surveyor,  Benjamin  Franklin 
a  printer,  Abraham  Lincoln  a  lumberman,  M.  de  Witte 
a  railway  official. 

In  a  less  exalted  sphere  we  meet  with  the  same  phe- 
nomenon. Sir  William  Herschell  was  a  musician,  Fara- 
day a  bookbinder,  Scott  a  lawyer's  clerk,  Ney  a  notary's 
clerk,  Arkwright,  the  inventor  of  the  spinning-machine 
and  the  first  cotton  manufacturer,  a  barber,  Spinoza  a 
glass-blower,  Edison  a  newsvender;  George  Stephenson 
and  most  of  the  great  inventors  and  creators  of  industry 
of  his  time  were  ordinary  \vorkingmen. 

When  we  look  around  we  find  not  only  that  many 
leaders  of  men  were  devoid  of  a  highly  specialized  train- 
ing in  that  particular  branch  of  human  activity  in  which 
they  excel,  that  they  were  self-taught  amateurs,  but  that 
many  of  the  ablest  politicians  and  of  the  most  successful 
business  men  have  not  even  had  the  advantage  of  a  fair 
general  education.  Abraham  Lincoln  had  learned  at 
school  only  the  three  R's,  and  those  very  incompletely, 
President  Garfield  worked  with  a  boatman  when  only 
ten  years  old,  President  Jackson  was  a  saddler  and  never 
spelled  correctly,  President  Benjamin  Harrison  started 
life  as  a  farmer,  and  President  Andrew  Johnson,  a  former 
tailor,  visited  no  school,  and  learned  reading  only  from 
his  wife.  George  Peabody  started  work  when  only  eleven 
years  old,  the  late  Sir  Edwin  Harland  was  apprenticed 
at  the  age  of  fifteen  years,  Andrew  Carnegie  began  his 
commercial  career  when  twelve  years  old  as  a  factory 
hand,  Charles  Schwab,  former  president  of  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  drove  a  coach  as  a  boy,  and 
then  became  a  stake-driver  at  an  iron  works.  Josiah 
Wedgwood  started  work  when  only  eleven  years  old; 
Arkwright,  the  father  of  our  cotton  industry,  was  never 
at  school ;  Edison  was  engaged  in  selling  papers  when 
twelve  years  of  age,  and  Sir  Hiram  Maxim  was  with  a 
carriage  builder  when  he  was  fourteen.  "  Commodore  " 
Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  the  railway  king,  who  left  more 


140    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

than  a  hundred  million  dollars,  started  as  a  ferryman  at 
a  tender  age;  the  founder  of  the  wealth  of  the  Astors 
was  a  butcher's  boy,  Baron  Amsel  Mayer  von  Rothschild 
a  peddler,  Alfred  Krupp  a  smith,  Rockefeller,  the  head 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Trust,  a  clerk.  All  these  most  suc- 
cessful men  were  autodidacts.  People  well  acquainted 
with  the  city  can  name  a  goodly  number  of  millionaires 
who  occasionally  drop  an  "h,"  the  only  evidence  left  of 
an  arduous  career  from  the  bottom  rung  of  the  ladder. 
Why  have  so  few  eminently  successful  men  been 
school-trained?  Because  the  acceptance  of  ready-made 
opinions  kills  the  original  thinking  power  and  unbiased 
resourcefulness  of  the  mind,  and  paramount  success  can 
not  be  achieved  by  docile  scholars  and  imitators,  but  only 
by  pioneers.  Besides,  the  independent  spirits  who  are 
predestined  for  future  greatness  are  usually  impatient  of 
the  restraint  of  schools,  and  of  their  formal  and  largely 
unpractical  tuition,  and  wish  to  be  free  to  follow  their 
own  instincts  toward  success. 

In  view  of  these  numerous  well-known  instances  of 
greatness  achieved  by  men  unaided,  but  also  unspoiled  by 
education,  who  taught  themselves  what  they  found  neces- 
sary to  learn,  which  instances  might  be  multiplied  ad 
infinitum,  it  is  only  natural  to  find  a  strong  opposition  to 
education  among  the  unlearned  men  whose  native  shrewd 
common  sense  has  not  been  affected  by  the  reading  of 
books.  But  even  the  learned  begin  to  waver  and  to  ask 
themselves  whether  the  much-vaunted  benefits  of  learning 
have  not  been  largely  overestimated,  and  whether  the 
undoubted  advantages  of  education  are  not  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  corresponding  disadvantages. 

The  doubts  as  to  the  advantages  of  education  have 
been  considerably  strengthened  by  our  experiences  in  the 
South  African  War.  Many  observers  have  been  struck 
by  the  curious  phenomenon  that  our  most  highly  educated 
officers  had  on  the  whole  so  little  success  against  the 
Boer  officers,  who  were  not  only  quite  unlearned  in  the 
science  of  war,  but  also  mostly  uneducated,  and  some- 
times grossly  ignorant  in  elementary  knowledge,  peasants 
who  had  perhaps  not  even  heard  the  names  of  Frederick 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     141 

the  Great,  Napoleon  and  Moltke,  whose  every  battle  our 
erudite  officers  had  at  their  fingers'  ends. 

The  highest  military  school  in  Great  Britain  is  the 
Staff  College.  The  officers  who  have  succeeded  in  pass- 
ing through  that  institution  are  considered  to  be  the  most 
intellectual,  and  are  marked  out  for  future  employment 
in  the  most  responsible  positions.  They  are  our  most 
scientific  soldiers  and  represent  the  flower  of  learning  in 
the  army.  Consequently  it  might  be  expected  that  our 
most  distinguished  generals  should  be  Staff  College  men. 
However,  if  we  look  through  the  Army  List,  it  appears 
that  our  most  successful  officers  in  the  Boer  War  —  Lord 
Roberts,  Lord  Kitchener,  Sir  John  French,  Sir  George 
White,  Sir  Archibald  Hunter,  Sir  Ian  Hamilton,  Lord 
Dundonald,  Sir  Hector  Macdonald  and  General  Baden- 
Powell —  have  not  passed  the  Staff  College.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  find  that  the  late  General  Colley,  who  lost 
Majuba,  was  a  prominent  military  scientist  and  Staff  Col- 
lege professor,  and  that  General  Gatacre,  who  was  de- 
feated at  Stormberg,  and  Generals  Kelly-Kenny,  Hild- 
yard,  Hart  and  Barton,  who  also  took  part  in  the  South 
African  War,  though  not  with  conspicuous  success,  have 
the  much-coveted  P.  S.  C.  (passed  Staff  College)  printed 
before  their  names.  In  the  South  African  War  it  came 
to  pass,  as  some  crusty  old  colonels  had  prophesied,  that 
the  officers  who  were  brimful  of  scientific  military  knowl- 
edge, and  who  could  talk  so  learnedly  on  strategy  and 
tactics,  achieved  nothing  on  the  field  of  battle.  Those 
who  achieved  something  had  not  been  "trained"  to  gen- 
eralship in  the  Staff  College,  and  had  not  had  their  natural 
thinking  power,  their  common  sense,  crowded  out  of  exist- 
ence by  the  absorption  of  a  huge  store  of  book-learning. 

After  some  of  our  initial  defeats  a  distinguished  gen- 
eral was  sent  out,  and  it  was  reported  that  wherever  he 
went  a  large  library  of  military  works,  strategetical,  tac- 
tical and  historical,  went  with  him.  He  and  his  library 
went  to  Africa  to  save  the  situation,  but  not  many  months 
after  that  distinguished  scientific  general  returned  in  dis- 
grace to  England,  together  with  his  library.  His  impos- 
ing book  knowledge,  with  which  he  could  talk  down  any 
mere  fighting  officer,  had  availed  him  nothing  in  the  field. 


142    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

Our  "highly-trained"  professional  intelligence  officers 
proved  also  of  very  little  value  until  they  had  unlearned 
in  Africa  what  they  had  been  taught  at  home,  while  quite 
unlearned  Transvaal  peasants  made  splendid  intelligence 
officers.  On  the  other  hand,  "  Colonel "  Wools-Sampson, 
by  far  our  best  intelligence  officer,  was  a  civilian. 

Our  politicians  have  unfortunately  not  yet  learned  the 
lessons  of  the  South  African  War.  Instead  of  investigat- 
ing why  the  unlearned  peasant  officers  defeated  so  often 
the  flower  of  our  military  scientists,  who  were  fortified 
with  the  most  profound  military  education,  and  who  had 
a  most  extensive  knowledge  of  the  battles,  the  strategy 
and  tactics  of  all  periods,  from  the  time  of  Hannibal 
onward,  a  committee  of  gentlemen  innocent  of  war  was 
deputed  to  inquire  into  the  education  of  our  officers. 
Naturally  enough  their  verdict  was  condemnatory  of  the 
present  system,  and  various  suggestions  were  made  by  it 
how  to  improve  the  education  of  our  officers.  Lord  Kitch- 
ener, General  French,  Christian  de  Wet  and  Louis  Botha, 
fighting  officers  who  are  no  doubt  the  most  competent 
judges  of  the  qualifications  required  in  an  officer  for  war, 
were,  unfortunately,  not  asked  for  their  opinion  on  such 
a  vital  matter.  It  would  have  been  interesting  to  learn 
how  much  or  how  little  weight  practical  authorities  of 
unrivaled  weight,  such  as  these,  attach  to  school  educa- 
tion of  officers  as  practiced  in  Great  Britain,  and  what, 
according  to  their  opinion,  the  effect  of  that  school  edu- 
cation is  upon  their  common  sense. 

In  view  of  these  few  examples,  which  are  universally 
known,  and  many  more  which  are  less  familiar,  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  thoughtful  men  begin  to  question 
the  efficacy  of  education  altogether.  *  *  * 

No  doubt,  the  object  of  education  should  be  to  en- 
lighten the  understanding,  cultivate  the  taste,  correct  the 
temper,  form  the  manners  and  habits  of  youth,  and,  espe- 
cially, to  fit  them  for  usefulness  in  their  future  stations 
by  preparing  them  for  the  battles  of  life.  Is  this  object 
attained  to  any  degree  by  our  present  education,  or  does 
it  chiefly  endow  us  with  a  show  of  motley  knowledge, 
mostly  useless  in  after  life,  to  the  detriment  of  our 
natural  thinking  powers  and  of  our  common  sense? 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     143 

The  danger  inherent  to  the  possession  of  a  store  of 
undigested  knowledge  is  that  it  shackles,  stifles  and  often 
kills  the  free  working  of  the  brain.  That  great  danger  of 
education  has  been  clear  to  many  great  men,  from  Sol- 
omon onward,  who  have  given  the  matter  a  thought.  Of 
the  numerous  epigrams  which  have  been  coined  to  warn 
against  the  danger  of  substituting  a  dead  weight  of  un- 
digested and  therefore  useless  knowledge  for  an  active, 
unprejudiced  and  clear  brain,  endowed  with  common 
sense,  I  should  like  to  mention  only  two :  Goethe's,  "  The 
greater  the  knowledge  the  greater  the  doubt,"  and  Haz- 
litt's,  "  The  most  learned  are  often  the  most  narrow- 
minded  men."  The  truth  of  these  sayings  is  absolutely 
clear  to  everyone;  only  this  truth,  though  instinctively 
felt,  has  not  sufficiently  been  taken  to  heart  by  those  who 
direct  the  education  of  the  nation. 

It  has  been  truly  said  "knowledge  is  power,"  but 
knowledge  in  itself  is  not  power,  only  applied  knowledge 
is  power.  Knowledge  is  like  money,  not  valuable  in  it- 
self, but  only  valuable  for  what  it  will  buy.  Knowledge 
is  like  a  strong  weapon,  but  the  best  weapon  is  useless 
to  a  man  who  does  not  know  how  to  wield  it.  Knowl- 
edge is  an  elementary  power,  but  the  power  of  the  Niag- 
ara, or  of  steam,  or  of  electricity,  would  be  useless  to 
mankind  unless  intelligence  directs  that  power  to  some 
practical  purpose.  The  Chinese  knew  magnetic  iron  long 
before  the  Europeans  knew  it.  To  them  it  was  a  piece 
of  iron  and  nothing  more.  Handled  by  European  intelli- 
gence, magnetic  iron  became  a  useful  power  in  the  com- 
pass, which  gave  Europe  the  rule  of  the  seas.  The  Chinese 
knew  also  gunpowder  before  the  Europeans  knew  it,  but 
to  them  it  was  only  a  plaything  used  in  fireworks. 

A  learned  officer  whose  intelligence  has  been  swal- 
lowed up  by  his  military  studies  will  not  immediately  fit 
his  tactics  to  the  case  in  point,  as  his  free  common  sense 
would  suggest,  but  tries  often  to  make  the  case  in  point  fit 
the  theories  which  he  has  imbibed,  or  the  historical  prece- 
dents and  parallels  which  his  memory,  not  his  judgment, 
suggests  to  him.  An  example:  On  the  i$th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1899,  General  Buller  telegraphed  to  Lord  Lans- 
downe  from  Chieveley  Camp: 


144    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

"*  *  *  My  view  is  that  I  ought  to  let  Lady- 
smith  go  and  keep  good  position  for  tht  defense  of  South 
Natal,  and  let  time  help  us.  *  *  *  The  best  thing 
I  can  suggest  is  that  I  should  keep  defensive  position  and 
fight  it  out  in  a  country  better  suited  to  our  tactics." 

Instead  of  looking  at  the  position  of  the  enemy  and 
his  tactics  with  an  unbiased  mind,  and  fitting  his  tactics 
to  the  ground  and  circumstances,  General  Buller  evi- 
dently wished  to  fit  the  ground  and  circumstances  to  his 
unsuitable  book  tactics  and  proposed  to  retire  to  South 
Natal  in  the  vain  hope  that  the  enemy  would  oblige  him 
by  following  after,  and  thus  enable  him  to  fight  there 
according  to  the  book.  Other  generals  complained  that 
the  Boers  "bolted"  before  an  attack  with  the  bayonet 
could  be  "  brought  home."  They  seemed  to  consider  that 
the  Boers  did  not  play  the  game  squarely  in  deviating 
from  the  tactics  taught  in  the  text-books.  *  *  * 

What  applies  to  military  matters  and  to  business  of 
state  applies  with  equal  force  to  trade  and  commerce. 
None  of  our  successful  generals  in  the  South  African 
War  have  passed  through  the  Staff  College,  and  no  busi- 
ness man  of  the  first  rank  in  Great  Britain,  America  or 
Germany  has,  as  far  as  is  known,  come  from  commercial 
high  schools.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  that  Mr.  Car- 
negie's advice  to  "start  young  and  hroom  in  hand"  is 
most  excellent  counsel.  While  great  fortunes  and  great 
industries  have  almost  invariably  been  created  by  unedu- 
cated men,  parvenus  unembarrassed  with  learning,  who 
taught  themselves  what  they  found  necessary  to  know, 
we  find  on  the  other  hand  that  those  men  who  have  made 
commercial  science,  political  economy,  their  study,  have 
not  shown  any  success  in  business  and  have  remained 
theorists.  Most  political  economists  have  had  to  live  on 
their  pen.  Mr.  Cobden  went  bankrupt  in  business.  It  is 
true  that  Ricardo  was  well  off,  but  he  was  a  stockbroker 
by  trade,  and  with  him  political  economy  was  only  a 
hobby,  not  a  serious  pursuit.  It  is  strange  how  few 
business  men  of  the  first  rank  have  a  good  word  to  say 
of  political  economy.  *  *  * 

As  the  possession  of  knowledge  without  understanding 
is  not  only  useless,  but  as  its  acquisition  also  deprives 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     145 

the  learners  of  much  valuable  time  which  might  more 
advantageously  have  been  employed  in  a  different  way, 
it  is  quite  clear  that  the  schools  should  first  of  all  try  to 
develop  the  native  intelligence,  the  common  sense,  of  their 
pupils,  instead  of  ignoring  its  presence  and  weakening 
its  force.  Furthermore,  schoolmasters  should  constantly 
bear  in  mind  that  knowledge  can  only  be  usefully  ac- 
quired in  proportion  to  the  common  sense  possessed  by 
the  learner,  that  learning  must  be  subordinate  to  under- 
standing, and  that,  though  common  sense  can  make  ex- 
cellent use  of  knowledge,  knowledge  can  never  replace 
common  sense.  Tuition  should,  therefore,  always  look  to 
the  intellectual  power  of  the  scholar,  as  the  engineer 
looks  to  the  pressure-gauge,  and  regulate  accordingly  the 
rate  of  progress  in  learning,  instead  of  mechanically  fill- 
ing the  learner's  brain  to  the  full  capacity  of  the  memory, 
and  thereby  crowding  out  the  common  sense,  *  *  * 

DR.  WOODROW  WILSON'S  OPINION. 

(From  an  address  by  President  Woodrow  Wilson,  of 
Princeton,  delivered  at  the  Washington  University,  of  St. 
Louis.) 

"The  most  serious  task  before  the  university  world 
to-day,"  said  President  Wilson,  "is  the  task  of  restoring 
the  balance  in  favor  of  the  intellectual  interests  of  our 
colleges  and  universities.  A  strong  university  has  no  need 
of  being  advertised  by  its  teams,  its  glee-clubs  or  its 
dramatic  societies.  Moreover,  the  many  undergraduate 
activities,  each  in  itself  innocent,  are  in  the  aggregate 
exhaustive  of  the  supply  of  energy  and  initiative  which 
each  student  possesses.  Too  often,  after  football  and 
baseball  and  fraternity  dances,  comes  study;  and  the  pro- 
fessor receives  not  the  close  attention  and  undiminished 
initiative  which  he  has  a  right  to  expect,  but  that  tiny 
residuum  which  is  left  over  after  the  pleasures  of  college 
life  have  had  their  sway. 

"A  man  who  takes  a  course  of  four  years  of  social 
life  at  some  university,"  declared  President  Wilson,  "has 
thrown  away  four  years  of  that  natural  power  to  work 


146    ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING. 

which  descended  to  him  from  his  great  progenitor,  Adam. 
He  now  finds  himself  face  to  face  with  actual  work  in  its 
true  sense,  and  he  also  finds  that  he  is  not  ready  to  work ; 
his  faculties  are  undeveloped,  his  fund  of  information  is 
limited  and  very  hazy;  he  is  a  college  man,  but  he  is  not 
a  trained  man,  nor  an  educated  man.  It  is  a  singular 
fact  that  our  universities  are  standing  upside  down,  not 
on  their  heads  —  which  might  be  not  altogether  a  bad 
thing  —  but  on  the  wrong  end.  Pleasure  is  business,  and 
business  is  pleasure.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  man's  chief 
duty  to  himself  and  to  society  is  to  get  his  brain  into 
such  shape  that  he  can  use  it,  and  certainly  one  function 
of  a  university  is  to  show  the  applicant  whether  or  not 
he  has  any  brains.  Men  are  too  ready  to  assume  that 
they  can  be  educated,  that  they  have  brains." 

PROGRESS  AND  CHARACTER. 

(Extract  from  an  article  by  Mr.  Chamberlain,  formerly 
premier  of  Great  Britain  and  a  prominent  manufacturer.) 

"  I  would  remind  you  that  all  history  shows  that 
progress  —  national  progress  of  every  kind  —  depends 
upon  certain  individuals  rather  than  upon  the  mass. 
Whether  you  take  religion,  or  literature,  or  political  gov- 
ernment, or  art,  or  commerce,  the  new  ideas,  the  great 
steps,  have  been  made  by  individuals  of  superior  quality 
and  genius,  who  have,  as  it  were,  dragged  the  mass  of 
the  nation  up  one  step  to  a  higher  level.  So  it  must  be 
in  regard  to  material  progress.  The  position  of  the  nation 
to-day  is  due  to  the  efforts  of  men  like  Watt  and  Ark- 
wright,  or,  in  our  own  time,  to  the  Armstrongs,  the 
Whitworths,  the  Kelvins  and  the  Siemenses.  These  are 
the  men  who,  by  their  discoveries,  by  their  remarkable 
genius,  have  produced  the  ideas  upon  which  others  have 
acted  and  which  have  permeated  the  whole  mass  of  the 
nation  and  affected  the  whole  of  its  proceedings.  There- 
fore, what  we  have  to  do,  and  this  is  our  special  task  and 
object,  is  to  produce  more  of  these  great  men." 

Mr.  Chamberlain  mentions  only  a  few  of  the  great 
men  of  England  who,  without  special  education  —  and 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     147 

not  much  of  general  education  —  attained  fame  for 
themselves  and  laid  the  foundation  for  England's 
wonderful  material  progress.  He  might  have  named 
Stephenson,  Dudley,  Brasse,  Napier,  Nasmyth,  Rus- 
sell, Koenig,  Bramah,  Maudslay,  Clement,  Fox,  Whit- 
worth,  Fairbairn,  Smeaton,  Kelley,  Rennie,  and  a  score 
of  others. 

And  I  might  add  that  in  this  country  we  have  had 
in  the  same  class,  as  the  real  builders  of  America, 
such  men  as  Slater,  Fulton,  Ericsson,  Blanchard,  Read, 
Howe,  Corliss,  Baldwin,  Goodyear,  and  many  others. 

Not  all  of  our  higher  educational  institutions  com- 
bined can  present  an  array  of  names  and  achievements 
to  compare  for  a  moment  with  those  I  have  just  men- 
tioned. Nor  can  they  show  conclusively  that  they 
have  played  a  part  of  any  importance  in  contributing 
to  the  success  of  the  country. 


CHAPTER    XII. 
CONCLUSION. 

I  am  perfectly  well  aware  I  shall  receive  neither  the 
thanks  nor  the  sympathy  of  the  college  clique  for  this 
investigation,  for  the  so-called  higher  education  is  the 
fashionable  thing  and  it  is  "  bad  form  "  to  say  any- 
thing against  it.  Many  people  of  prominence,  in  their 
interviews  or  articles  on  this  subject  during  the  past 
year,  have,  through  ignorance  or  enthusiasm,  made 
exceedingly  foolish  and  absolutely  untruthful  state- 
ments in  behalf  of  educational  institutions,  and  it  is 
just  such  remarks,  together  with  the  absurd  notoriety 
given  to  the  various  athletic  and  other  contests  of 
college  clubs  and  societies,  that  are  largely  responsible 
for  the  false  ideas  prevailing  among  a  large  portion  of 
the  public  in  regard  to  the  value  of  a  college  education. 

My  great  object  in  this  investigation  has  been  to 
furnish  facts  instead  of  theories,  in  order  that  people 
may  be  able  to  determine  whether  they  are  justified  in 
making  the  great  sacrifices  that  are  required  to  send 
their  boys  to  college.  This  is  a  work  that  should  have 
been  undertaken  long  ago  by  the  college  authorities 
themselves,  for  it  is  their  duty  to  the  public  to  see  that 
no  deception  is  allowed  to  exist  on  this  subject.  But, 
even  after  I  have  furnished  them  with  the  evidence  that 
has  been  produced  by  this  investigation,  I  do  not  sup- 
pose for  one  moment  that  they  will  make  it  public  or 
retract  their  statements.  Instead  of  laying  the  facts 


ACADEMIC  AND  CLASSICAL  SCHOOLING.     149 

before  the  young  men  who  are  preparing  to  enter  col- 
lege, they  will  go  right  on  deceiving  as  many  as  they 
can  and  taking  the  money  of  those  to  whom  they  can 
give  nothing  in  return  but  useless  knowledge.  Prac- 
tically they  stand  on  the  same  level  as  the  merchant 
who  sells  goods  which  he  knows  to  be  shoddy. 


PART  TWO 

TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL 
SCHOOLING 


INTRODUCTORY  TO  PART  TWO. 

One  of  the  surprising  things  of  the  present  age  is 
the  enormous  development  of  technical  schools  in  this 
country  in  the  last  forty  years. 

In  1870  there  were  only  two  technical  colleges  — 
the  Troy  and  the  Philadelphia  Polytechnic.  Now 
there  are  forty-five  strictly  technical  schools,  and  in 
addition  almost  all  the  colleges  have  technical  depart- 
ments, making  the  number  several  hundred,  with  many 
thousand  students. 

In  view  of  the  indisputable  fact  that  practically  all 
of  the  great  engineers  that  have  ever  lived  had  no 
technical-school  training,  and  that  all  the  wonderful 
progress  that  this  country  has  made  in  the  perfection 
of  manufacturing  has  been  accomplished  without  such 
training,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  ask  if  we  have  not 
gone  crazy  on  this  subject? 

The  object  of  Part  Two  of  this  book  is  to  show 
the  fallacy  of  these  technical  schools, 


CHAPTER  I. 

TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  APPLIED  TO 
MANUFACTURING. 

There  seems  to  be  a  belief  in  some  quarters  that 
technical  education  is  valuable  to  manufacturing.  I 
have  given  this  matter  much  thought,  and  I  wish  to 
say  that  in  my  long  experience  in  the  manufacturing 
business  I  have  seen  no  practical  results  coming  from 
technically  trained  men,  and  I  do  not  know  of  a  case 
where  a  practical  and  successful  manufacturer  has 
taken  any  interest  in  technical  schools. 

VALUE  OF  THE  PRACTICAL. 

I  lay  strong  emphasis  on  the  practical  side.  The 
period  of  a  boy's  life  usually  given  to  technical  educa- 
tion is  the  most  important  in  his  whole  career,  and 
should  not  be  devoted  to  anything  questionable  or 
speculative.  Technical  schools  are  built,  supported  and 
managed  wholly  by  impractical  people,  and  they  are 
not  qualified  to  play  a  part  in  the  training  of  boys  who 
have  to  earn  their  own  livelihood  in  a  mechanical  line. 

I  most  emphatically  disagree  with  the  popular  belief 
that  a  technical  education  is  necessary  to  the  pro- 
duction of  good  mechanics,  foremen,  superintendents, 
etc. 

So  far  as  manufacturing  is  concerned,  I  am  most 
decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  time  spent  in  technical 


156     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

schools  is  absolutely  wasted.  I  as  strongly  believe 
that  technical  education  is  a  positive  drawback  in 
nearly  every  mechanical  line. 

For  example:  I  glance  over  a  recent  bulletin  of 
one  of  our  technical  schools  and  see  that  the  students 
will  make  "  astronomical  observations  and  computa- 
tions to  determine  time,  latitude  and  azimuth."  That 
they  will  have  advanced  work  in  "  differential  and 
integral  calculus,  mechanical  differentiation  and  inte- 
gration, calculus  of  imaginaries  and  hyperbolic  func- 
tions," and  that  "  elliptical  functions  "  will  be  defined. 
There  also  will  be  "  addition  and  multiplication  of 
determinants  "  and  some  exercise  with  the  "  ellipsoid," 
the  "  hyperboloid  "  and  the  "  paraboloid." 

Now  these  things  may  be  all  very  well  in  their 
place,  and  very  interesting  to  a  few,  but  how  in  the 
name  of  common  sense  are  they  going  to  help  a  young 
man  to  be  a  good,  all-around,  practical  mechanic  ? 

Will  knowledge  regarding  differential  and  integral 
calculus  enable  him  to  run  a  lathe  or  work  at  a  vise? 

Can  a  foreman  do  his  work  better  if  he  be  on  inti- 
mate speaking  terms  with  the  azimuth  ? 

DANGER  OF  IMPRACTICAL  THINGS. 

Because  a  superintendent  can  roll  ellipsoid  or  para- 
boloid as  a  sweet  morsel  under  his  tongue,  is  he  the 
better  fitted  to  select  and  to  control  his  men? 

Ordinary  common  sense  gives  a  most  emphatic  NO 
to  these  questions. 

The  youth  who  gets  a  few  of  these  things  into  his 
head,  in  some  hit-or-miss  fashion,  may  feel  that  he  is 
securing  knowledge  essential  to  his  progress,  and  con- 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      157 

sequently  he  comes  out  of  the  technical  school  and  goes 
into  the  shop  with  the  idea  that  he  is  superior  to  the 
boy  wholly  shop-trained. 

His  head  is  swelled  to  such  an  extent  that  he  is 
unable  to  grasp  the  practical  things  that  are  essential 
to  his  advancement  and  success. 

In  fact,  if  such  a  lad  does  succeed  as  a  mechanic, 
it  is  because  he  has  sense  enough  to  profit  by  the 
knocking  around  he  is  sure  to  get  in  the  shops,  and  to 
drop  his  false  ideas,  so  that  he  may  begin  to  learn 
things  of  real  practical  and  material  value  to  him. 

I  maintain  that  what  is  necessary  for  men  to  have 
to  be  successful  in  manufacturing  is  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  art,  of  the  kind  of  machines  best  adapted 
to  certain  purposes,  and  of  how  much  the  machines 
are  capable  of  producing.  Also,  what  is  a  reasonable 
day's  work  in  the  different  lines  that  the  men  are 
employed  at.  That  is  to  say,  a  man  should  know  just 
what  a  ton  of  various  kinds  of  castings  can  be  produced 
for.  If  he  is  building  an  engine  he  should  know 
almost  exactly  the  number  of  days'  work  ft  takes  to 
turn  it  out. 

These  prime  essentials  are  not  found  in  a  course  in 
technology,  but  in  long  experience  and  close  observa- 
tion in  the  business,  and  in  a  thoroughly  up-to-date 
factory. 

Many  are  deceived  in  regard  to  the  value  of  tech- 
nical education  by  the  fact  that  some  of  the  graduates 
from  technical  schools  get  into  good  positions. 

Undoubtedly  this  is  true,  but  only  to  a  very  limited 
extent. 

I  maintain  that  where  one  technical  graduate 
secures  a  good  position,  a  dozen  boys,  who  have  had 


158     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

none  of  this  technical  training,  also  get  good  positions, 
and  fill  them  equally  as  well  as,  or  better  than,  the 
technically  educated  young  man. 

WHERE  TECHNICAL  SCHOOLS  FAIL. 

It  would  be  most  surprising  if  the  technical  schools 
did  not  turn  out  something  above  the  average  now  and 
then,  when  we  remember  that  as  a  rule  none  but  the 
brighest  boys  are  sent  to  such  institutions.  And  this, 
to  my  mind,  is  one  of  the  strongest  counts  against  this 
class  of  higher  education:  it  has  its  pick  of  the  best 
and  brighest,  yet  with  such  working  capital  it  makes 
no  adequate  returns. 

I  know  of  one  concern  that  tried  twenty  graduates 
of  technical  schools,  and  I  am  informed  that  of  this 
number  seventeen  proved  absolute  failures,  two  were 
indifferently  successful,  and  only  one  turned  out  to 
be  a  decided  success. 

These  men  were  tried  as  salesmen,  where  they 
would  be  much  more  likely  to  succeed  than  in  the  man- 
agement of  mechanical  operations. 

As  an  argument,  on  the  other  hand,  I  know  of  one 
large  manufacturing  concern  in  this  country  that, 
despite  the  fact  that  it  was  surrounded  by  technically 
trained  men,  chose  its  superintendent  from  the  ranks 
of  its  common  laborers,  giving  him  a  position  that 
paid  $12,000  a  year. 

I  might  also  cite  the  case  of  a  man  I  know  who 
took  a  course  in  architecture  in  the  "  Boston  Tech.," 
and  afterward  admitted  that  before  he  could  make  any 
progress  in  his  profession  he  had  to  forget  about  all 
that  had  been  taught  him  in  that  school. 

I  don't  know  of  a  case  where  a  technically  educated 
man  has  built  up  a  manufacturing  business  of  his  own 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      159 

and  carried  it  to  marked  success.  In  fact,  it  is  rare  to 
find  instances  where  technically  trained  men  have 
assisted  materially  in  the  building  up  and  management 
of  great  industrial  enterprises. 

Why,  then,  do  we  hear  such  enthusiastic  claims 
to-day  for  what  technical-school  education  is  doing? 

Why  such  boasting  about  what  Germany  is  doing 
in  a  technical  way,  till  that  country  has  become  one 
of  our  bugaboos?  As  far  as  mechanics  is  concerned, 
we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  Germany;  but  it  is 
undeniable  that  Germany  has  much  to  learn  from  us. 

One  or  two  facts  will  illustrate  this.  A  year  or 
two  ago  one  of  my  sons,  while  in  Germany,  visited  a 
large  electrical  plant  in  Nuremburg,  and  found  that 
this  factory  not  only  was  filled  with  American  machin- 
ery, but  was  managed  by  Americans. 

While  talking  with  a  gentleman,  some  time  ago, 
concerning  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  machin- 
ery in  Germany,  he  made  the  statement  that  on  a  recent 
visit  to  that  country  he  had  seen  a  factory  that  was 
being  fitted  up  for  the  manufacture  of  reapers  and 
that  was  completely  equipped  with  American  machin- 
ery. 

No  NEED  TO  FEAR  GERMANY. 

I  am  also  told  by  a  German  who  visited  one  of  the 
prominent  automobile  factories  in  Germany  that  there 
also  American  machinery  was  used  almost  entirely.  In 
talking  with  one  of  our  prominent  machine  tool  build- 
ers some  ten  years  ago,  he  said  that  he  was  exporting 
fifty  per  cent  of  his  output,  and  that  another  man  in 
the  same  business  in  his  neighborhood  was  exporting 
sixty  per  cent  of  his  output. 

I  mention  these  facts  because  I  hear  so  much  talk 


160     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

about  the  importance  of  the  German  technical  schools 
to  manufacturing,  and  that  there  is  danger  of  the 
American  manufacturer  being  completely  outstripped 
unless  he  encourages  these  schools  here.  My  theory 
is,  however,  that  this  course  would  ruin  American 
business,  instead  of  help  it. 

If  Germany  is  so  far  ahead  of  us  mechanically, 
why  does  she  buy  our  machinery  for  her  factories,  and 
hire  our  mechanics? 

iWho  ever  heard  of  Americans  buying  extensively 
of  German  machinery  or  employing  German  mechanics 
as  foremen  and  superintendents?  If  she  is  so  great 
in  this  line  as  some  would  have  us  believe,  shouldn't 
there  be  a  great  demand  for  her  machinery  and 
mechanics  ? 


CHAPTER  II. 
TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  IN  ENGINEERING. 

Following  a  regular  order  in  my  investigation  as 
to  the  practical  merits  of  all  kinds  of  higher  or  special 
education,  I  come  now  to  technical  schools  that  have 
to  do  with  education  in  the  various  branches  of  engi- 
neering. 

Before  getting  right  into  my  subject  I  wish  to  give 
what  I  understand  by  the  terms  "  expert "  and  "  tech- 
nical," as  they  will  be  used  frequently  in  this  article. 

As  the  dictionary  definitions  of  these  terms  are 
confusing,  I  shall  consider  them  as  follows,  believing 
that  this  is  the  view  people  generally  take  regarding 
them: 

An  "  expert "  is  one  who  has  become  skilled  and 
thorough  in  any  line  of  handicraft  or  calling. 

A  "  technical "  man  is  one  who  has  learned  the 
science  or  theory  of  some  calling  or  handicraft. 

How  TECHNICAL  SCHOOLS  HAVE  GROWN. 

The  engineering  schools  seem  to  have  been  simply 
an  outgrowth  of  the  whole  higher  educational  move- 
ment. Professors  and  teachers  who  appear  to  hold  to 
the  belief  that  they  know  just  what  the  country  needs, 
or  who  have  become  jealous  of  other  colleges  that  have 
established  engineering  departments,  have  gone  ahead 
adding  to  the  list  of  these  institutions  without  any 
knowledge  as  to  whether  there  was  any  real  need  for 
them. 

11 


162     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

There  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  fascination  for  many 
people  about  the  word  "  engineer,"  especially  if  a  man 
is  a  technical-school  educated  engineer,  and  still  more 
so  if  he  has  received  his  technical-school  instruction  in 
Germany.  Some  apparently  look  upon  such  men  as 
superior  persons,  in  fact,  in  some  cases,  almost  wor- 
shiping them. 

The  great  mass  of  people  who  employ  engineers 
have  not  the  slightest  conception  of  the  subject,  so 
it  is  only  natural  that  when  in  need  of  an  engineer  they 
should  select  one  who  has  the  reputation  of  having 
been  educated  at  a  technical  school,  and  especially  one 
who  may  have  been  so  educated  in  Germany. 

Only  those  who  have  had  a  large  amount  of  experi- 
ence with  engineers  can  discern  their  merits;  so  that 
it  is  readily  understood  how  the  technical-school  engi- 
neers are  likely  to  acquire  their  reputation,  and  thus 
many  fall  into  the  error  of  believing  that  technical- 
school  graduates  must  be  superior  to  those  who  have 
had  only  practical  experience. 

Holding  this  view,  it  is  not  surprising  that  there 
should  be  some  who  think  that  if  one  can  not  get  good 
work  from  the  engineers  having  technical-school  edu- 
cation, where  can  it  be  procured? 

If  a  man  can  become  a  success  in  engineering  with- 
out attending  a  technical  school  that  will  teach  him 
the  theory  of  his  profession  —  that  is,  if  he  can  secure 
all  the  information  he  needs  in  the  actual  practice  of 
his  line  —  does  it  not  prove  that  the  school  is  of  no 
necessity  to  him? 

On  the  other  hand,  if  a  man  goes  to  a  technical 
school  and  afterward  in  the  practice  of  engineering 
makes  a  success  of  it,  surely  it  does  not  prove  that  the 
school  was  an  important  factor  in  his  success. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      163 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  world  got  along  suc- 
cessfully before  the  existence  of  technical  schools,  and 
that  all  the  important  engineering  problems  were 
solved  before  that  time,  and  to  the  further  fact  that 
these  schools  have  not  produced  any  engineers  of 
greater  ability  than  the  engineers  who  were  not  techni- 
cally educated  in  school,  it  would  seem  to  be  highly 
proper  to  raise  the  question  whether  we  have  not  gone 
altogether  too  far  in  our  rush  to  make  technical- 
school  engineers. 

WHERE  THE  DANGER  LIES. 

The  chief  danger  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  schools 
are  likely  to  go  to  a  great  extreme  in  teaching  theory — 
in  other  words,  that  they  will  take  up  much  of  the 
students'  time  unnecessarily. 

Doubtless  a  reasonable  amount  of  theory  is  all 
right,  but  the  trouble  is  that  too  many  engineers  are 
turned  out  of  the  schools  with  nothing  but  theory,  and 
I  can  not  find  anything  to  show  that  these  have  been 
any  more  successful  anywhere,  as  a  class,  than  have 
the  engineers  who  received  no  technical-college  edu- 
cation. 

Technical-school  education  should  be  subjected  to 
the  same  tests  as  any  other  sort  of  education.  The 
primary  object  of  schooling  is  to  teach  the  things  that 
ordinarily  are  hidden  —  that  is,  the  things  which  can 
not  be  learned  in  the  ordinary  practice  of  any  line  of 
work.  And  when  we  seek  for  the  things  that  practice 
can  not,  or  does  not,  teach  we  are  likely  to  find  that 
there  is  very  little  left  for  the  schools  to  do. 

The  ordinary  person  is  likely  to  get  confused 
regarding  all  sorts  of  schools  of  the  technical  kind, 


164     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

by  imagining1  that  they  are  the  fountainhead,  the  place 
where  everything  originates  in  connection  with  the 
lines  they  teach. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  nothing  originates  in  these 
schools,  for  it  all  has  been  originated  by  practical  men. 

The  technical  school,  for  example,  is  simply  a  store- 
house for  information  that  has  been  gathered  from  the 
practical  workers  of  the  world. 

It  must  be  obvious  that  none  of  the  knowledge 
which  the  technical-school  man  possesses  could  have 
been  secured  through  theory.  Of  necessity,  this  knowl- 
edge must  have  originated  in  practical  experience  and 
have  been  developed  through  practical  processes. 

To  bring  this  point  nearer  home,  I  may  be  excused 
for  making  a  personal  reference : 

When  I  was  engaged  in  the  steam-heating  business, 
I  arranged  and  perfected  half  a  dozen  or  more  novel 
meritorious  systems  of  warming  and  ventilating,  and 
planned  the  apparatus  of  quite  a  variety  of  unusual 
buildings  —  requiring  the  nicest  calculation  in  getting 
the  heating  surface  correct,  and  in  every  case  it  was 
absolutely  correct. 

In  all  of  these  I  worked  out  all  of  the  details  which 
entered  into  every  feature  of  the  plans.  These  I  had 
to  determine  from  practical  experience,  and  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  the  various  systems  were  perfect, 
not  only  in  heating  and  ventilating,  but  in  smoothness 
of  operation  and  economy  of  construction. 

TECHNICAL  SCHOOLS  HAVE  THEIR  FIELD. 

Now,  if  these  things  had  been  copied  and  done  by 
a  technical-college  educated  man,  which  is  the  usual 
case,  I  do  not  doubt  that  he  would  have  been  looked 
upon  as  considerable  of  an  engineer,  almost  a  genius. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      165 

The  way  this  matter  is  viewed  generally,  he  would 
have  been  given  credit  for  being  a  great  engineer, 
while  I,  as  a  steamfitter  and  practical  man  who  fur- 
nished all  the  brains,  would  have  been  without  stand- 
ing. 

And  what  I  have  said  in  regard  to  my  own  case  is 
as  true  of  every  feature  of  engineering  work. 

I  admit  that  there  is  a  legitimate,  though  limited, 
field  for  technical  schools.  If  they  would  confine  them- 
selves with  diligence  and  great  discretion  to  accumulat- 
ing the  best  practice  of  the  best  practical  men,  and 
preserve  this  information  and  experience,  so  that  it 
might  be  handed  down  with  discretion  to  the  students, 
they  might  do  considerable  good. 

But,  as  I  understand  it,  these  schools  are  open  to 
the  severest  criticism,  because  their  work  is  not  done 
with  discretion  and  the  students  are  not  instructed  with 
judgment. 

As  I  have  been  informed  by  a  good  engineer,  the 
necessity  for  technical  schools  is  not  so  much  to  stuff 
the  minds  of  the  students  with  a  lot  of  rules  and  fig- 
ures, as  to  have  them  become  familiar  in  a  general  way 
with  the  subject  and  to  know  where  certain  and  best 
information  may  be  had  when  they  want  it. 

To-day  the  student's  mind  is  crammed  with  a  great 
quantity  of  this  information,  an  enormous  amount  of 
which  is  immaterial ;  and  of  that  part  of  it  which  may 
be  material  to  him,  he  probably  will  forget  nine-tenths 
of  it  before  the  time  comes  when  he  may  require  it  in 
practice. 

And  in  no  case  would  it  be  prudent  for  the  prac- 
ticing engineer  to  depend  upon  his  memory  for  impor- 
tant rules  and  figures.  The  prudent  man  simply  will 
go  back  to  the  authorities  and  there  ascertain  definitely 


166     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING, 

what  the  rules  and  figures  are  before  he  attempts  to 
use  them. 

I  may  illustrate  this  indiscreet,  if  not  useless,  teach- 
ing of  the  schools  by  referring  to  a  letter  received  from 
an  engineer,  a  technical-school  graduate,  who  said  in 
one  part  of  it :  "  During  the  past  five  seasons  over 
$400,000  worth  of  work  has  been  done  under  my 
charge ;  I  can  not  say  that  there  was  a  single  instance 
which  absolutely  necessitated  a  technical-school  educa- 
tion." 

It  is  perfectly  clear  from  this  engineer's  letter  that, 
notwithstanding  this  admission  of  having  received  no 
benefit  from  these  schools,  he  is  a  warm  friend  of 
technical-school  education ;  so  it  can  not  be  said  that 
I  have  quoted  one  who  is  prejudiced  against  such 
instruction. 

SMALL-SALARIED  PROFESSORS. 

Another  point  suggests  itself  in  this  connection:  I 
think  that  in  this  country  there  is  very  little  really 
good,  substantial  ability  in  the  faculties  of  our  tech- 
nical schools,  nor  can  we  expect  to  get  satisfactory 
results  from  instructors  who  receive  not  more  than 
$3,000  or  $4,000  a  year. 

An  inconsistency  here  arises:  If  these  professors 
are  as  capable  of  producing  good  engineers  as  they 
would  have  the  public  believe  they  are,  they  would  not 
be  occupying  the  positions  they  have,  but  would  be 
secured  by  some  of  the  great  engineering  establish- 
ments. But,  in  my  judgment,  no  engineering  estab- 
lishment would  give  those  fellows  $2,000  a  year,  and 
it  is  perfectly  absurd  to  imagine  that  such  professors 
can  make  first-class  engineers. 

I  understand  that  in  Germany  the  technical  schools 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      167 

pay  high  salaries  for  instructors,  professors  and  lec- 
turers, picked  from  among  the  best  of  those  who  are 
actually  engaged  in  engineering  work,  who  are  fully 
up-to-date,  and  who,  consequently,  are  altogether  the 
best  qualified  to  teach  others  their  profession. 

It  seems  almost  impossible  to  get  reliable  informa- 
tion on  this  subject  from  either  class  of  engineers,  tech- 
nical or  practical,  because  each  seems  to  be  prejudiced 
against  the  other.  So  I  am  compelled  to  avoid  both  in 
seeking  facts  and  in  forming  opinions.  I  shall,  however, 
in  the  course  of  this  part  of  my  subject,  present  an 
array  of  indisputable  facts,  and  leave  it  to  those  who 
are  interested  and  qualified  to  draw  their  own  con- 
clusions. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  FIELD  FOR  ENGINEERS. 

There  are  all  kinds  of  engineers,  and,  as  most  of 
the  engineering  work  is  comparatively  simple,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  a  large  number  of  engineers  are  not 
technically  educated  in  the  schools ;  in  fact,  it  would 
be  the  height  of  folly  to  send  this  class  of  men  to 
school. 

Perhaps  not  more  than  five  per  cent  of  all  engi- 
neering work  requires  the  skill  of  the  most  highly 
trained  engineers.  And  when  practically  all  of  even 
this  five  per  cent  of  important  work  has  been  done  in 
the  past  by  non-technical-school  men,  where  is  the 
sense  of  sending  the  rest  to  be  technically  educated  in 
the  schools,  especially  when  we  consider  that  a  man 
can  earn  good  wages  while  learning  engineering  in  a 
practical  way. 

UNCOMMON  BRAIN  CAPACITY  NEEDED. 

It  seems  to  be  clear  that  the  great  engineer  must 
be  a  man  of  unusual  brain  capacity,  whether  he  be 
school-educated  or  self-educated.  This  is  self-evident. 
It  also  is  perfectly  clear  that  no  school  can  give  a  man 
brains. 

Any  one  who  has  had  large  experience  with  men 
in  factories,  or  in  doing  any  kind  of  public  work  that 
requires  a  large  number  of  men,  knows  that  men  of 
brains  are  an  exceedingly  scarce  article.  Probably 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      169 

not  more  than  one  man  in  a  thousand,  even  among 
those  who  go  to  technical  schools,  has  any  unusual 
amount  of  brains. 

The  object  of  the  man  of  unusual  ability  going  to 
a  technical  school  is  to  learn  the  hidden  things,  and 
the  important  things  of  unusual  practice;  and  proba- 
bly not  more  than  one  year  would  be  required  to  learn 
all  there  is  in  this  line. 

When  we  take  into  consideration  that  it  costs  proba- 
bly $5,000  to  give  a  boy  a  technical-school  education, 
and  that,  as  above  stated,  not  more  than  one  person 
in  a  thousand  who  attends  these  schools  has  the  brain 
capacity  to  make  an  eminent  engineer,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  education  of  the  one  person  who  is  really 
benefited  by  the  schools  cost  $5,000,000. 

BIG  COST  FOR  SMALL  RESULTS. 

If  exception  should  be  taken  to  my  figures,  let  it  be 
conceded  that  only  one  in  one  hundred  having  the  brain 
capacity  for  such  training,  the  training  of  this  one 
would  cost  $500,000.  Or,  even  admitting  that  one  in 
every  ten  might  be  benefited,  his  education  would  cost 
$50,000  —  even  the  smallest  figure  being  a  pretty  stiff 
price  to  pay  for  what  little  he  gets  of  practical  value. 

There  seems  to  be  a  difference  of  opinion  between 
the  English  and  the  German  people  as  to  the  best  way 
to  produce  engineers.  The  former,  as  I  understand 
it,  believe  that  engineers  should  be  given  more  of  the 
practical  experience  and  less  of  the  theory;  while  the 
latter  claim  to  be  able  to  make  better  engineers  by 
giving  more  of  theory  and  less  of  practice. 

History  and  the  most  readily  obtainable  facts  favor 
the  English  side  of  the  question  most  decidedly  —  that 
is,  the  greatest  engineers  the  world  has  known,  those 


170     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

who  laid  the  foundation  for  practically  all  of  the  engi- 
neering knowledge  we  have  to-day,  belonged  to 
England  and  were  wholly  without  technical-school 
education  —  or  even  general  education  except  of  the 
most  ordinary  kind. 

ENGINEERING  IN  ENGLAND. 

While  no  engineering  works  of  particular  conse- 
quence were  undertaken  in  England  before  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  apparently  all  the 
greatest  problems  in  engineering  were  solved  in  that 
country  within  the  following  hundred  years  by  these 
self-educated  engineers. 

It  is  evident  that  before  the  engineering  problems 
were  presented  and  worked  out  there  could  have  been 
nothing  upon  which  to  base  courses  in  technical  edu- 
cation; so  where  I  do  not  find  mention  of  technical- 
school  education  in  the  training  of  the  great  engineers 
of  that  day,  I  assume  that  there  was  none  to  be  had 
that  was  of  any  account. 

Yet  how  it  must  impress  us  when  we  consider  the 
wonderful  amount  of  skill  and  ability  and  wisdom 
displayed  by  these  founders  of  the  engineering  profes- 
sion in  England.  As  the  problems  arose,  the  English- 
men were  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  soon  there  was  a 
demand  for  engineering  talent  of  the  highest  order, 
and  an  immense  amount  of  work  was  accomplished  in 
the  most  intelligent  manner. 

AN  ARRAY  OF  BRILLIANT  MEN. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  a  few  of  these  notable  men 
and  their  equally  notable  achievements : 

John  Smeaton,  the  father  of  civil  engineering  in 
England,  began  as  a  mathematical  instrument  maker; 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      171 

but  as  a  self-taught  engineer  he  has  left  the  present 
Eddystone  lighthouse,  a  number  of  drainage  works, 
docks,  bridges,  etc.,  not  to  mention  many  valuable 
papers  on  engineering  contributed  to  the  Royal  Society. 
Brindley,  the  father  of  canal-building  in  England, 
was  apprenticed  as  a  millwright,  but  later  took  up 
engineering.  His  first  canal,  a  perfect  level  waterway 
between  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  is  one  of  the  won- 
derful engineering  feats  of  the  age.  Brindley  was 
considered  the  foremost  engineer  of  his  day,  and  fur- 
ther proofs  of  his  skill  are  to  be  seen  in  roads,  bridges, 
waterways,  etc.,  throughout  England. 

RENNIE,  TELFORD,  BRUNEL. 

John  Rennie  rose  entirely  by  his  own  merits  from 
a  machinist  to  the  crowning  engineering  triumph  of 
the  Southwark  and  the  Waterloo  bridges  over  the 
Thames  —  still  among  the  notable  and  beautiful 
structures  of  the  world,  the  Waterloo  bridge  having 
been  declared  by  the  celebrated  Canova  to  be  "  the 
finest  fabric  of  the  kind  he  had  ever  seen."  The 
Crinan  canal  and  many  docks,  not  to  overlook  the  Bell 
Rock  lighthouse,  are  further  evidences  of  Rennie's 
greatness. 

Telford  was  a  mason  in  his  earlier  years;  then 
took  up  engineering  and  became  one  of  the  world's 
most  notable  bridge-builders.  His  suspension  bridge 
over  the  straits  of  Menai  was  a  structure  spanning 
more  than  five  hundred  feet  and  the  first  of  its  kind. 

As  it  consisted  of  stone  pillars  on  each  side  of  the 
strait  to  carry  chain-cables  from  which  the  bridge 
proper  was  suspended,  and  as  the  problems  involved 
were  not  only  new  but  were  practically  the  same  as 
those  connected  with  the  building  of  all  such  structures 


172     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

since  that  day,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  in  all  the  sus- 
pension bridges  of  later  years  merely  a  reproduction 
of  the  Telford  bridge  —  no  matter  what  their  size  or 
the  material  used  in  the  construction  of  other  note- 
worthy suspension  bridges. 

I  might  also  mention  the  Chirk  aqueduct,  the  Coal- 
brookdale  iron  bridge,  the  bridge  of  Dunkeld,  Scot- 
land, Harecastle  tunnel,  the  Caledonian  and  other 
canals,  and  several  drainage  works  and  docks,  all 
speaking  eloquently  of  Tel  ford's  surpassing  skill  and 
ability  as  an  engineer. 

THE  FIRST  THAMES  TUNNEL. 

Sir  Isambard  Brunei  stands  as  the  successful 
builder  of  the  first  tunnel  under  the  Thames,  and  as 
the  inventor  of  the  tunneling  shield,  the  principles  of 
which  are  the  same  as  those  in  the  shields  of  to-day, 
though  the  methods  of  operation  are  somewhat  differ- 
ent. 

This  was  but  one  of  Brunei's  many  engineering 
achievements,  but  I  regard  his  tunnel  under  the  Thames 
as  one  of  the  greatest  pieces  of  engineering  even  up  to 
the  present  day.  When  we  consider  that  the  diffi- 
culties of  such  a  task  were  many,  that  the  problems  to 
be  worked  out  all  had  to  be  solved  by  him,  and  this 
at  the  very  birth  of  extensive  tunnel  construction,  we 
can  not  hold  Brunei  in  too  high  regard. 

To  avoid  steep  grades  at  either  end,  Brunei  ran 
his  tunnel  at  so  high  a  level  that  in  places  the  crown 
of  the  brickwork  came  to  within  four  feet  of  the 
water  of  the  Thames.  Naturally  this  increased  the 
difficulties  of  construction;  yet  during  the  twenty 
years  in  which  the  great  work  progressed,  the  most 
trying  situations  were  met  with  untiring  persistence 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     173 

and  uncommon  skill,  and  no  problem  in  such  construc- 
tion was  left  unsolved  for  the  tunnel-builders  of  the 
future. 

IMPORTANT  PROBLEMS  SOLVED. 

It  is  well  to  keep  this  successful  achievement  in 
mind  when  we  are  considering  the  problems  presented 
by  such  tunneling  as  is  going  on  under  the  rivers 
around  New  York  city,  for  Brunei  was  the  father  of 
all  this  sort  of  engineering. 

Following  Brunei  as  a  tunnel-builder  came  Barlow. 
His  Tower  tunnel  under  the  Thames  was  a  successful 
piece  of  work,  but  not  to  be  compared  with  that  of 
Brunei,  for  at  no  point  did  Barlow  allow  less  than 
eighteen  feet  of  solid  London  clay  to  come  between  the 
crown  of  his  tunnel  and  the  bed  of  the  river;  and, 
besides,  he  had  all  the  advantages  of  the  shield  invented 
by  Brunei. 

This  much  for  the  non-technical-school  engineers 
of  England,  and  what  they  did  to  merit  a  high  place 
in  the  world's  history.  America  also  has  had  men  of 
this  caliber  and  of  this  practical  training. 

AMERICAN  ENGINEERS. 

One  of  the  earliest  engineering  works  of  magnitude 
in  this  country  was  the  building  of  the  Erie  canal,  a 
waterway  nearly  three  hundred  miles  in  length  and 
with  numerous  locks.  Considering  the  time,  the  facili- 
ties, and  the  comparative  youth  fulness  of  engineering, 
this  was  a  remarkably  good  piece  of  work.  It  has 
stood  the  test  of  years,  and  it  stands  to-day  as  a  com- 
plete and  satisfactory  piece  of  work ;  in  fact,  no  better 
canal  has  been  built  since  then,  which  may  be  consid- 


174     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

ered  ample  proof  of  the  skill  and  thoroughness  of  the 
men  who  planned  and  built  it. 

Prominent  among  these  were  James  Geddes  and 
Benjamin  Wright.  After  the  canal  commission,  about 
1810,  had  imported  at  large  expense  an  engineer  from 
England  —  William  Weston  by  name  —  and  he  had 
failed  to  satisfy  the  commission  as  to  his  ability, 
Messrs.  Geddes  and  Wright  offered  to  undertake  the 
work  if  the  commission  would  give  them  its  full  con- 
fidence. 

THE  WORK  OF  JAMES  GEDDES. 

The  offer  was  accepted,  and  from  that  time  until 
the  completion  of  the  canal,  in  1825,  the  name  of  James 
Geddes  is  most  prominently  connected  with  all  the 
active  and  practical  work. 

Mr.  Geddes  was  of  fine  education,  though  almost 
wholly  self-educated.  He  was  a  farmer's  son,  and 
studied  while  following  the  plow.  He  became  well 
versed  in  foreign  languages  and  was  one  of  the  best 
mathematicians  of  his  day. 

Assisted  by  Mr.  Wright,  Mr.  Geddes  made  some 
remarkable  surveys  of  the  route  of  the  canal  before 
actual  construction  began.  Starting  at  points  about 
two  hundred  miles  apart,  the  two  surveyors  ran  their 
levels  toward  each  other,  and  these  levels  met  with  a 
variation  of  only  a  trifle  more  than  an  inch.  This 
feat  compares  favorably  with  some  of  the  work  of 
modern  engineers  in  running  levels  for  tunnels. 

Considerable  has  been  said  at  various  times  about 
the  surveying,  especially  of  the  tunnels  through  the 
Alps  and  the  tunnels  under  the  rivers  around  New 
York.  Apparently  many  think  it  was  a  very  clever 
piece  of  engineering  to  have  these  tunnels  surveyed  so 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      175 

accurately,  commencing  at  opposite  ends ;  but  in  this 
case  we  see  that  the  levels  were  run  for  two  hundred 
miles  absolutely  accurate,  where  the  East  River  tunnel 
is  only  a  couple  of  miles  long  —  so  that  it  appears  from 
this  that  the  old-fashioned  engineers  understood  this 
business  fully  as  well  as  they  do  to-day. 

MOST  SUCCESSFUL  ENGINEERING. 

From  these  facts,  and  the  further  fact  that  the 
canal  was  finished  under  the  direction  of  these  men, 
within  eight  or  nine  years,  and  was  in  every  way  a 
successful  piece  of  work,  the  names  of  James  Geddes 
and  Benjamin  Wright  have  earned  the  right  to  be 
included  in  the  list  of  civil  engineers  who  without  the 
assistance  of  the  technical  schools  have  done  work 
equal  to  the  best  that  has  been  done  by  any  of  the 
world's  eminent  engineers  in  this  line  since  then. 

Another  good  piece  of  early  engineering  was  the 
original  Croton  aqueduct,  by  which  pure  water  was 
brought  into  New  York  city. 

John  B.  Jarvis,  designer  and  constructor  of  this 
aqueduct,  began  as  an  axman  on  the  Erie  canal.  He 
was  promoted  to  the  position  of  rodman,  and  when  the 
canal  was  partly  finished,  he  was  made  resident  engi- 
neer of  a  seventeen-mile  section  of  it. 

In  1825  he  was  made  superintendent  of  resident 
engineers.  Later  he  became  chief  engineer  of  the  Dela- 
ware and  Hudson  Canal  Co.  Other  positions  of  trust 
and  importance  followed,  until  in  1848  he  was  made 
chief  engineer  of  construction  for  the  Croton  aque- 
duct. This  aqueduct  proved  a  great  success,  and  is 
still  in  use.  This  aqueduct  across  the  Harlem,  while 
it  is  not  a  wonderful  piece  of  work,  has  been  for  all 
these  years  an  object  of  great  admiration. 


176     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

In  1850  Mr.  Jarvis  visited  Europe  and  was  received 
with  great  honors  on  account  of  his  engineering 
achievements. 

DRY  DOCK  AT  BROOKLYN. 

Another  good  piece  of  engineering  work  in  the 
early  days  was  the  building  of  the  dry  dock  in  the 
Brooklyn  Navy  Yard,  which  was  built  in  the  40*5.  I 
do  not  know  the  size  of  the  dock,  but  it  was  a  large 
one  for  those  times,  and  the  engineers  met  with  great 
difficulty  in  consequence  of  quicksand  in  making  their 
coffer  dams  and  getting  a  proper  foundation  for  the 
dock;  but  they  were  able  to  overcome  all  difficulties 
and  made  a  very  successful  piece  of  work.  There  is 
no  piece  of  engineering  around  the  city  of  New  York 
to-day  that  is  worthy  of  more  praise  than  this.  But, 
unfortunately,  I  do  not  know  who  the  engineers  were 
who  are  entitled  to  credit  for  it,  but,  of  course,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  they  were  not  technically  educated  men, 
because  there  were  no  such  men  in  the  country  at  that 
time. 

Another  early  engineering  feat  was  the  develop- 
ment of  water  power  at  Paterson,  New  Jersey.  I  do 
not  know  the  engineer,  but  the  work  was  done  about 
one  hundred  years  ago,  and  I  think  stands  exactly  the 
same  to-day,  which,  of  course,  proves  the  perfection 
of  the  original  work.  The  water  power  is  constructed 
on  three  different  levels. 

James  Buchanan  Eads,  in  point  of  achievement, 
was  one  of  the  greatest  engineers  this  or  any  other 
country  has  produced.  His  great  bridge  across  the 
Mississippi  at  St.  Louis  was  notable  in  every  way,  its 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      177 

main   span   of   five   hundred   feet   having  been  pro- 
nounced the  finest  piece  of  metal  archwork  in  the 

world. 

NOTABLE  WORK  OF  EADS. 

But  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  this  bridge  was 
the  caisson  work  and  the  building  of  the  foundation 
and  piers,  which  was  by  far  the  greatest  piece  of  engi- 
neering work  of  its  kind  produced  before  or  since. 

His  jetties  in  the  Mississippi  encountered  and  suc- 
cessfully solved  problems  of  the  first  magnitude,  and 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the  projection  of  these 
he  was  opposed  by  practically  every  engineer  of  the 
United  States  army,  who  finally  were  compelled  to 
admit  that  he  was  right. 

Eads  was  the  first  American  citizen  to  receive  the 
Albert  medal  from  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  as  a  recognition  of  his  signal 
engineering  achievements. 

Eads  was  a  man  of  liberal  education  and  broad 
culture,  but  almost  wholly  self-taught.  At  thirteen  he 
was  compelled  to  quit  school  and  to  help  in  the  sup- 
port of  his  brothers  and  sisters ;  but  he  always  found 
time  for  the  reading  of  the  best  books  he  could  secure. 
It  was  in  the  school  of  practical  experience  that  he 
gained  the  deep  and  accurate  knowledge  so  success- 
fully applied  in  his  notable  career  as  an  engineer. 

William  Howe  is  another  name  that  deserves 
honorable  mention  here.  About  1840  he  invented  a 
combination  truss  which  became  widely  known  in  the 
building  of  many  of  the  earlier  bridges.  It  is  undoubt- 
edly a  fact  that  Howe  thus  became  an  important  factor 
in  the  building  of  the  first  railroad  bridges  in  this  coun- 
try; and  when  we  consider  the  large  part  that  wood 

played  in  these  structures,  Howe  must  be  classed  as 
12 


178     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

great  as  any  of  the  bridge  inventors  and  designers  who 
followed  him. 

I  might  mention  here  other  builders  of  bridges,  but 
in  recent  conversation  with  one  of  our  oldest  engineers, 
who  has  had  a  large  amount  of  experience,  I  was 
informed  that  the  planning  of  the  best  railroad  bridge 
work  over  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  rivers  was 
about  equally  divided  between  practically  educated 
engineers  and  those  who  had  received  a  technical- 
school  education. 

THE  MORMON  TEMPLE. 

The  Mormon  Temple  at  Salt  Lake  City  is  worthy 
of  mention  here.  I  do  not  regard  this  as  any  great 
piece  of  engineering  work,  except  when  we  take  into 
consideration  the  men  who  planned  and  built  it,  and 
the  conditions  under  which  it  was  constructed. 

The  building  of  this  temple  took  three  years.  The 
roof  is  an  elliptical  dome,  resting  upon  forty- four  but- 
tresses of  solid  masonry.  No  nails  or  iron  were  used 
in  the  construction  of  this  dome,  or  in  any  part  of  the 
building,  all  timber  joints  being  tied  together  with 
buckskin  thongs. 

The  building  is  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long  and 
one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  wide.  The  ceiling  of  the 
roof  is  nearly  seventy  feet  from  the  floor  and  is  arched 
without  a  pillar.  The  full  height  of  the  structure  is 
eighty  feet. 

The  building  was  designed,  as  to  general  appear- 
ances and  dimensions,  by  Brigham  Young,  then  presi- 
dent of  the  Mormon  Church.  It  was  constructed  under 
the  supervision  of  Henry  Grow,  with  Truman  O. 
Angell,  official  church  architect,  as  adviser  on  all  diffi- 
cult problems  which  might  arise. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      179 

Brigham  Young  was  a  carpenter  and  joiner.  He 
used  to  say  that  his  entire  formal  schooling  covered  a 
period  of  three  weeks.  He  had  a  natural  aptitude  for 
architecture,  but  not  even  the  rudiments  of  technical 
education. 

Henry  Grow  also  was  a  carpenter.  He  did  a  good 
deal  of  bridge-building,  and  built  the  first  suspension 
bridge  in  Utah,  across  the  Ogden  river. 

Truman  O.  Angell  also  was  a  carpenter,  a  man 
with  scarcely  any  school  education,  a  natural  architect, 
with  not  a  particle  of  technical  education. 

These  men  simply  were  good  mechanics,  and  did 
not  claim  to  be  engineers.  Yet  how  good  was  their 
work,  how  remarkable  when  we  consider  that  no  iron 
was  used  in  the  construction  of  this  temple,  and  that 
it  has  stood  all  these  years  without  showing  defect. 

WORK  OF  PRACTICAL  MEN. 

Probably  no  technical  man  could  have  done  this 
work,  or  have  admitted  that  it  could  be  done.  He 
would  have  depended  upon  his  scientific  education  and 
the  school  way  of  doing  things,  and  these  would  not 
have  allowed  him  even  to  imagine  that  the  Mormon 
Temple  could  have  been  built  in  the  way  it  was  done 
by  ordinary  mechanics.  If  the  Mormons  had  depended 
upon  a  technical-school  educated  man  to  guide  them 
in  these  matters,  it  would  not  have  been  built  until 
they  could  have  procured  iron.  Incidentally,  I  would 
mention  that  the  acoustics  of  this  building  are  proba- 
bly the  finest  of  any  building  in  the  world. 

When  we  come  to  some  of  the  work  of  the  tech- 
nical-school men  of  this  country,  I  would  say  that  my 
attention  has  not  been  called  to  any  technical-school 


180     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

educated  engineer's  work  of  special  importance,  except- 
ing that  around  New  York  city,  so  I  shall  confine 
myself  to  the  work  done  there. 

Persons  of  any  observation  can  see  that  there  has 
been  a  great  amount  of  large  engineering  work  con- 
structed, comparatively  within  the  last  few  years,  and 
to  a  person  not  familiar  with  the  subject  I  can  readily 
understand  that  it  would  seem  that  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  wonderful  engineering  ability  connected  with 
it,  and  undoubtedly  there  is  a  lot  of  good  engineering 
work. 

THE  BROOKLYN  BRIDGE. 

I  mention  the  work  of  a  highly  technically  edu- 
cated engineer,  Mr.  John  A.  Roebling.  Mr.  Roebling 
started  in  this  country  in  engineering  work  in  making 
a  mechanism  for  hauling  canal  boats  up  an  incline, 
and  did  some  canal  work.  He  seemed  to  have  been 
the  originator  of,  or  at  least  early  in  making,  wire 
cables. 

His  first  suspension  bridge  was  built  at  Pittsburg 
over  the  Monongahela  river,  which  was  a  success.  He 
afterward  built  the  suspension  railway  and  vehicle 
bridge  across  the  Niagara  river,  which  also  turned  out 
to  be  a  great  success. 

His  next  great  piece  of  engineering  work  was  the 
Brooklyn  bridge,  which  is  another  notable  achieve- 
ment as  a  piece  of  engineering  work,  and  is  beautiful 
in  its  architectural  construction.  I  can  say  the  same 
of  the  Williamsburg  bridge ;  they  are  both  works 
that  I  take  great  interest  and  pleasure  in,  and  I  never 
go  to  New  York  without  going  over  both  of  them,  and 
I  feel  that  the  men  who  designed  and  constructed  them 
are  certainly  entitled  to  a  great  deal  of  credit,  even 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      181 

though  they  did  not  evolve  any  new  scientific  or  great 
engineering  features. 

OLD  PRINCIPLES  EMPLOYED. 

Of  course,  the  principle  of  the  suspension  bridge 
is  old,  and  there  are  no  new  features  connected  with 
the  bridge,  although  Mr.  Roebling  is,  however,  entitled 
to  great  credit  for  having  advanced  this  style  of  con- 
struction away  beyond  anything  that  had  previously 
existed.  He  and  his  assistants  were  also  entitled  to 
great  credit  for  figuring  out  the  proportions  and 
strength,  and  designing  every  detail,  which  he  appears 
to  have  done  with  the  greatest  proficiency.  This 
involved  an  enormous  amount  of  good  close  study  of 
all  the  factors  that  entered  into  such  a  gigantic  under- 
taking. 

I  have  it  on  good  authority,  however,  that  when  it 
came  to  actual  construction,  "  in  place  of  assistant 
engineers,  he  (Roebling)  preferred  to  work  with  intel- 
ligent, practical  foremen,  such  as  master  masons,  mas- 
ter carpenters,  master  machinists,  etc." 

Now  we  come  to  the  Pennsylvania  tunnel  and  the 
station  work.  I  have  in  my  correspondence  memo- 
randum papers  stating  that  the  engineers  in  charge 
of  the  designing  and  management  of  these  tunnels 
were  Alfred  Noble,  C.  L.  Harrison,  S.  H.  Woodward, 
James  Brace  and  Francis  Mason.  I  understand  that 
they  were  all  technical-school  educated  engineers. 

I  understand  that  they  had  at  one  time  about  four 
hundred  engineers  on  the  job,  which  looks  as  if  they 
were  running  a  refuge  for  technical-school  men  who 
couldn't  get  a  job  any  place  else. 

I  also  have  the  following  statement  in  regard  to 
this  subject  from  Charles  M.  Jacobs,  chief  engineer 


182      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

of  the  Hudson  and  Manhattan  Railroad,  in  reply  to  a 
letter  of  inquiry  I  sent  on  this  subject. 

"  With  reference  to  the  general  character  of  edu- 
cation in  proportion  to  the  practical  side,  as  mechanical 
engineering  forms  such  an  important  factor  in  the 
consideration  of  these  works,  the  best  men  have  gen- 
erally had  mechanical  training,  working  in  shops,  and 
more  particularly  in  mining  works,  and  then  obtaining 
experience  in  underground  mining." 

NEW  YORK  TUNNEL  WORK. 

I  would  say  in  addition  to  what  Mr.  Jacobs  says 
in  regard  to  the  successful  tunnel  builder,  that  in  my 
opinion  some  of  the  most  important  things  about  tun- 
neling under  the  river  are  that  the  engineer  should 
have  a  complete  knowledge  of  the  difficulties  he  may 
get  into,  and  at  all  times  be  prepared  to  meet  any 
emergency.  The  principal  sources  of  trouble  that  he 
may  get  into  are  quicksand  and  flow  of  water,  and  he 
must  be  keen  to  observe  the  slightest  indication  of 
trouble  ahead  that  he  may  guard  against  it. 

In  this  job  they  start  in  at  Bergen  hill  with  the 
tunneling.  Of  course,  there  is  nothing  new  or  great 
in  making  a  tunnel  through  rock  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances, but  in  tunneling  through  the  earth  from 
the  rock  to  the  bank  of  the  river  may  arise  problems 
that  require  good  practical  engineering  ability. 

We  now  come  to  the  portion  of  the  tunnel  work 
under  the  river,  which  presents  problems  of  the  great- 
est magnitude,  and,  in  fact,  there  is  no  problem  of 
engineering  to-day  that  requires  better  judgment,  skill 
and  experience  than  this  class  of  engineering.  But 
all  of  these  engineering  features  were  covered  by  Sir 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      183 

Isambard   Brunei,   who  built  the  tunnel  under  the 
Thames  over  a  hundred  years  ago. 

SIZE  NOT  VERY  IMPORTANT. 

As  to  the  hole  in  the  ground  in  New  York,  there 
is,  of  course,  nothing  great  in  this.  A  person  who  can 
blast  a  small  hole  can  blast  a  big  hole  if  given  time 
enough,  so  it  will  be  seen  there  is  no  new  engineering 
feature  connected  with  this  whole  subject. 

As  to  the  engineering  feature  of  this  work,  I  would 
say,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  where  technically 
trained  engineers  can  be  of  any  great  service  in  work 
of  this  kind.  Certainly,  the  building  of  tunnels  is  not 
a  matter  that  technical  schools  are  likely  to  know  much 
about,  and  I  would  say  that  notwithstanding  the  above 
fact  that  the  engineers  connected  with  this  job  claim 
to  be  technical-school  educated  engineers,  I  will  ven- 
ture the  information  that  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Jacobs 
describes  as  having  practical  experience  in  this  work, 
is  altogether  a  more  important  man,  and  absolutely 
indispensable  in  carrying  out  work  of  this  kind, 
whereas  the  technical-school  educated  man  is,  in  my 
opinion,  simply  an  ornamental  figurehead.  In  other 
words,  I  maintain  that  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Jacobs 
speaks  of  could  carry  out  this  whole  job  without  the 
assistance  of  a  technical-school  educated  man. 

Take  the  underground  system  of  railroads,  the 
same  is  true  of  them;  there  is  no  great  engineering 
feature  connected  with  them.  It  is  much  the  same  as 
the  case  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  tunnels.  It 
wants  a  man  of  large  experience  in  this  kind  of  work 
and  of  good  common  sense.  Of  course,  the  engineers 
laid  out  the  routes,  size,  stations,  etc.,  which  is  no  great 


184     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

engineering  problem.    And  what  is  true  of  these  jobs 
is  true  of  everything  around  New  York  city. 

There  is  an  immense  amount  of  good  mechanical 
work  in  these  jobs,  which,  of  course,  is  all  done  by  the 
practical  man.  The  glory  of  all  this  work  belongs  as 
much  to  him  as  to  the  engineer.  The  mechanic  could 
do  pretty  near  all  this  work  without  an  engineer,  but 
the  engineer  could  not  do  any  of  it  without  the  me- 
chanic. Yet  the  engineer  is  getting  all  the  glory  and 
credit  for  this  sort  of  work.  For  example,  the  prac- 
tical man,  in  erecting  the  Brooklyn  bridge,  performed 
quite  as  meritorious  a  piece  of  work  as  Mr.  Roebling 
did  in  his  part  of  designing  it. 

Some  engineers  claim  that  we  have  bigger  engi- 
neering problems  to  solve  to-day  than  they  had  years 
ago;  therefore,  that  it  is  necessary  to  have  engineers 
with  technical-school  education  to  handle  them.  Admit- 
ting that  the  problems  of  to-day  are  greater,  they 
would  embody  the  same  principles  as  those  of  an 
earlier  day,  and  practically  all  of  them  were  solved 
before  we  had  any  technical  schools. 

It  is  easily  seen  that  once  we  have  mastered  the 
construction  of  a  bridge  to  carry  a  fifty-ton  locomo- 
tive, a  bridge  to  bear  a  hundred-ton  locomotive  pre- 
sents no  new  problems.  If  these  engineers  were  called 
upon  to-day  to  build  a  wooden  railroad  bridge  of  the 
same  character  that  we  had  before  the  introduction  of 
steel  and  iron,  they  would  find  it  very  much  more  of  a 
problem  to  build  a  wooden  bridge  to  carry  a  twenty- 
five-ton  locomotive  than  they  did  to  increase  the 
strength  of  a  bridge  strong  enough  to  carry  a  fifty- 
ton  locomotive  to  one  that  would  carry  a  hundred-ton 
locomotive. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      185 

BUILDINGS  OF  THE  PAST. 

This  applies  to  all  sorts  of  construction  work.  Our 
buildings  to-day  are  no  bigger  than  some  of  the  build- 
ings that  were  constructed  hundreds  of  years  ago. 
We  are  not  doing  anything  in  this  line  that  surpasses 
the  Pantheon,  the  Coliseum,  or  St.  Peter's  in  Rome,  St. 
Paul's  in  London,  or  many  other  examples  of  the  best 
of  the  designer's  and  the  engineer's  art  that  the  world 
has  seen. 

From  all  that  I  have  said  upon  this  subject,  it  is 
evident  that  there  are  two  ways  of  making  engineers. 

The  technical-school  way  is  to  take  the  boys  with- 
out any  particular  judicious  selection  —  take  them 
"just  as  they  corne "  —  and  give  them  a  technical 
training,  without  any  regard  as  to  whether  or  not  they 
have  brains  or  any  unusual  ability.  The  schools  seem 
to  go  on  the  idea  that  they  can  make  good  engineers 
out  of  anybody. 

The  other  way  is  through  practical  lines.  For 
example :  If  a  bridge-building  firm  should  select  its 
apprentices  with  care,  giving  them  a  thorough  training 
in  the  construction  and  erection  of  bridges,  and  after 
this  training,  if  it  is  discovered  that  they  had  unusual 
ability,  then  if  the  company  would  furnish  them  with 
books  giving  the  exact  theoretical  training  that  they 
require  in  their  particular  business,  the  company 
would,  in  my  opinion,  get  far  superior  men  to  those 
produced  by  the  usual  technical-school  method. 

GET  THEORY  FROM  BOOKS. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  evidence  shows 
there  is  no  occasion  for  the  ordinary  engineer  to  go  to 
a  technical  school,  it  does  not  appear  unreasonable 


186     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

that  he  might  get  some  benefit  from  schooling.  But, 
whatever  he  requires  in  this  way  he  ought  to  be  able 
to  get  to  better  advantage  from  the  correspondence 
schools,  perhaps,  than  from  the  regular  technical 
schools,  though  what  he  requires  are  matters  he  could 
get  right  from  books.  He  knows  what  he  wants,  but 
may  not  know  the  books ;  he  does  not  need  a  teacher 
to  urge  him  to  study,  and  the  teacher  does  not  know 
anything  but  that  contained  in  the  books,  and  in  this 
case  he  is  working  and  studying,  and  making  a  living 
at  the  same  time. 

One  important  reason  why  the  practical  engineer  in 
general  lines  is  likely  to  turn  out  better  than  the  tech- 
nical-school trained  man  is  that  he  has  been,  in  the  first 
place,  like  the  case  of  the  bridge  man  suggested  above, 
selected  by  his  employer  because  he  appears  to  have 
natural  ability  and  has  been  promoted  to  higher  posi- 
tions when  his  employer  found  out  that  he  had  superior 
ability. 

I  realize  that  the  technical  schools  will  answer  my 
statements  by  saying  that  their  graduates  are  in  great 
demand  by  business  men  whose  judgment  can  not  be 
questioned.  On  this  point  I  will  say  that  there  is  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  truth  in  such  statements,  but  the  ques- 
tion is  whether  it  really  proves  that  these  schools  are 
important. 

RESULTS  OF  AN  INQUIRY. 

In  order  to  ascertain  just  what  the  demand  for 
these  boys  amounts  to,  I  sent  a  letter  of  inquiry  to 
graduates  from  the  engineering  departments  of  the 
universities  of  Wisconsin,  Illinois  and  Michigan,  who 
were  graduated  about  five  years  ago. 

From   the   one   hundred    replies    that   have   been 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      187 

received,  I  find  that  the  average  income  of  the  grad- 
uates, at  the  time  they  began  work,  was  about  $700  a 
year,  which  is  about  the  price  of  common  labor. 

This  surely  does  not  prove  that  employers  put  any 
unusual  value  on  the  services  of  such  men.  My  inquiry 
also  shows  that  after  eight  years  of  schooling  and  five 
years  of  business,  or  a  total  of  thirteen  years,*  their 
pay  averages  $1,700  a  year.  Admitting  that  these 
graduates  are  in  demand,  this  certainly  does  not  make 
any  great  showing  as  to  the  value  the  employers  place 
upon  them ;  so  I  claim  that  the  demand  on  the  part  of 
the  business  men  is  shown  to  amount  to  practically 
nothing. 

VALUE  OF  THE  PRACTICAL. 

If  these  same  boys  had  gone  into  a  factory  and  had 
paid  for  the  permission  of  being  promoted  right 
through,  they  would  have  been  much  better  compen- 
sated in  a  factory  or  business  than  they  have  been  as 
technical-school  graduates. 

In  the  factory  at  the  end  of  two  years  —  say  in  the 
foundry  —  they  would  have  sufficient  ability  to  receive 
wages  of  at  least  $3  a  day.  Then,  by  going  into  other 
departments  of  connected  trades  —  two  years  in  the 
machine  shop,  a  year  in  the  pattern  shop,  a  year  in  the 
blacksmith  shop,  making  a  total  of  six  years,  or  about 
half  the  time  the  technical-school  boys  spend  in  their 
education  and  practical  work  —  if  they  possessed 
brains  and  ability  they  would  be  fitted  for  positions, 
such  as  that  of  superintendent,  paying  several  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year. 

*I  understand  that  the  college  requires  the  boys  to  have 
four  years  of  high  school  and  then  four  years  of  technical 
school.  Five  years  of  business  added  to  this  make  the  thir- 
teen years. 


188     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

I,  of  course,  understand  there  are  a  great  many 
people  who  are  experimenting  with  these  technical- 
school  graduates ;  but  it  remains  to  be  seen  what  the 
results  will  be. 

WRONG  MEANING  OF  "  DEMAND." 

This  claim  of  the  colleges  of  having  a  demand  for 
these  boys  is  much  the  same  as  the  claims  that  the 
classical  educational  institutions  are  making,  that  their 
young  men  are  in  demand.  They  do  not  seem  to  com- 
prehend the  difference  between  a  thing  being  in 
demand  when  a  $5,000  article  is  given  away  and  when 
it  is  sold  for  a  profit. 

If  a  manufacturer  produced  an  article  that  cost 
$5,000,  and  had  to  give  it  away,  he  would  not  be 
bragging  about  his  flourishing  business.  This  idea  the 
educator  can  not  get  through  his  head. 

I  don't  think  there  ever  was  an  educated  man  who 
went  out  of  the  college  and  got  a  salary  in  proportion 
to  what  his  education  cost.  These  graduates  generally 
have  to  go  to  work  at  common  laborer's  pay,  and  this 
is  what  the  colleges  call  "  men  being  in  demand." 

But  what  if  these  graduates  are  in  demand  by  one 
in  ten,  among  employers  —  which  is  not  an  exag- 
gerated statement  —  what  does  that  prove  against  the 
other  nine  employers  who  do  not  want  such  men  ? 

To  sum  the  whole  matter  up,  it  seems  to  me  that 
it  is  absolutely  clear  that  the  old  engineers  of  England, 
who  developed  pretty  much  everything  there  is  in  con- 
nection with  this  subject,  and  American  engineers  who 
have  done  all  the  work  in  this  country  up  to  Mr.  Roeb- 
ling's  time,  prove  that  we  can  get  along  very  nicely 
without  technical-school  educated  men  for  all  this  kind 
of  work. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      189 

I  also  wish  to  say  that,  in  my  investigation  of  this 
subject,  I  have  not  discovered  where  any  technically 
educated  engineer  has  constructed  any  better  work 
than  the  old  practically  educated  engineers,  and  I  do 
not  know  of  any  case  where  any  of  them  has  devised 
or  invented  any  important  and  fundamental  device  or 
discovered  any  principle  connected  with  engineering 
work. 

As  for  mining  engineers,  I  believe  that  this  branch 
differs  but  little  from  civil  engineering,  as  it  consists 
principally  in  sinking  shafts,  making  tunnels,  pumping, 
etc.  I  have  made  some  investigations  in  this  line,  and 
was  not  surprised  to  find  that  the  best  early  mining 
engineering  work  was  done  in  California  and  that 
vicinity,  practically  all  of  it  by  engineers  who  were  not 
technically  educated  in  the  schools. 

Therefore,  what  I  have  said  here  regarding  civil 
engineering  applies  as  well  to  mining  engineering, 
hydraulic  and  drainage  engineering,  and  so  I  may 
dismiss  these  branches  of  engineering  without  further 
consideration. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

TECHNICAL    EDUCATION    IN    ELECTRICAL 
ENGINEERING. 

Electrical  engineering,  in  consequence  of  being 
somewhat  new,  is  looked  upon  as  being  a  very  impor- 
tant feature  of  general  engineering.  The  colleges 
appear  to  think  there  is  no  danger  of  producing  too 
many  electrical  engineers.  The  result  is  that  every 
college  has  a  course  in  electrical  engineering,  and  a 
hundred  of  these  engineers  are  turned  out  where  ten 
would  amply  supply  the  actual  demand. 

It  may  be  necessary  that  those  being  trained  to 
become  electrical  engineers  should  have  a  considerable 
amount  of  technical  education.  It  is  equally  true  that 
many  of  our  best  electrical  engineers  were  made  in  the 
earlier  days  —  and  are  still  being  made  —  without  hav- 
ing attended  technical  schools. 

The  question  I  raise,  therefore,  is  this:  Can  this 
necessary  technical  knowledge  be  secured  more 
economically  in  connection  with  the  practical  work  of 
the  factories,  or  by  taking  a  course  in  some  technical 
college  ? 

SCHOOLS  OF  SMALL  IMPORTANCE. 

When  really  strong  electrical  engineers,  such  as  I 
have  referred  to,  can  be  produced  in  the  ordinary  run 
of  business,  it  seems  to  me  that  this  fact  should  impress 
every  one  as  reasonably  conclusive  evidence  that  in  this 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      191 

particular  line  the  technical  schools  are  of  exceedingly 
small  importance. 

I  think  that  while  this  matter  of  making  electrical 
engineers  has  many  complicated  problems  to  solve,  it 
is  much  the  same  as  is  the  making  of  other  engineers, 
as  I  have  explained  in  my  previous  papers;  the  elec- 
trical engineer  may  be  developed  enormously  in  the 
factory,  more  especially  with  the  aid  of  some  sys- 
tematic schooling. 

In  going  into  this  subject  I  thought  I  would  better 
have  clearly  in  my  mind  what  an  electrical  engineer  is 
supposed  to  be,  and  I  wrote  to  the  two  chief  divisions 
of  the  General  Electric  Company  and  asked  the  fol- 
lowing question : 

"  What  is  an  electrical  engineer  ?  What  is  he  sup- 
posed to  know  and  be  capable  of  doing  on  leaving  your 
works?" 

MR.  ALEXANDER'S  DEFINITION. 

From  Mr.  M.  W.  Alexander  I  have  the  following 
definition : 

I  am  hardly  prepared  to  give  an  authoritative  definition 
of  what  an  electrical  engineer  is  and  what  he  is  supposed 
to  do.  In  a  general  way,  however,  I  should  say  that  an 
electrical  engineer,  in  the  accepted  definition  of  the  term, 
is  an  educated  man  who  has  specialized  on  the  study  of 
engineering,  and  particularly  electrical  engineering  theories 
and  phenomena,  and  who,  through  the  broadness  of  the 
studies  he  pursued,  has  learned  to  reason  from  cause  to 
effect,  look  ahead,  so  to  speak,  to  view  things  with  an 
analytic  mind.  He  should  be  able  to  apply  the  theories 
of  the  sciences  to  the  working  out  of  electrical  engineer- 
ing problems,  and  should,  based  on  his  analytic  power,  be 
able  to  use  sound  judgment  in  applying  the  proper 
values  to  the  undetermined  quantities  of  the  problem.  He 
should,  furthermore,  be  capable  of  evolving  new  theorems 
and  practical  applications. 


192     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

The  striking  thing  about  Mr.  Alexander's  definition 
is  that  he  is  so  uncertain  and  so  confused  as  to  the 
qualifications  of  an  electrical  engineer.  It  seems  to  me 
that  a  person  undertaking  to  make  an  engineer,  or  an 
engine,  or  anything  else,  should  have  it  clear  in  his 
mind  what  he  is  aiming  to  do  and  shape  his  course 
accordingly. 

SOME  OBSOLETE  TEACHING. 

As  I  shall  show  in  other  parts  of  this  discussion, 
Mr.  Alexander  claims  that  these  engineers  are  very 
deficient  apparently  in  the  qualifications  he  lays  down 
for  an  electrical  engineer;  and,  as  I  understand  from 
Mr.  Alexander  and  have  understood  from  others,  elec- 
trical engineering  is  far  from  being  fully  understood 
and  from  being  reduced  to  an  exact  science.  I  also 
understand  that  the  text-books  are  soon  out  of  date, 
and,  of  course,  the  teachers  are  likely  to  be  consider- 
ably behind  the  times,  as  Mr.  Alexander  intimates  they 
are.  The  result  is  that  a  good  deal  of  their  teaching  is 
obsolete,  and  therefore  of  no  value. 

Consequently  it  would  appear  that  the  engineers  the 
colleges  are  turning  out,  with  Mr.  Alexander's  four 
years  of  additional  training  (as  I  shall  refer  to  later 
on)  come  far  short  of  meeting  the  requirements  of  an 
electrical  engineer  as  he  and  Mr.  Rohrer  (whose 
definition  follows)  lay  down  after  all  these  twelve 
years  of  combined  study  and  practice. 

From  Mr.  A.  L.  Rohrer,  general  superintendent,  I 
have  the  following  definition : 

An  electrical  engineer  is  one  who  is  familiar  with  the 
general  theory  of  direct  current  and  alternating  current, 
and  with  all  phenomena  relating  to  the  generation  of 
electrical  energy,  its  transformation  and  its  distribution. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      193 

It  is  desirable  that  he  possess  in  addition  to  the  above 
a  good  knowledge  of  mechanics,  both  theoretical  and 
practical,  so  that  he  may  have  the  practical  appreciation 
of  the  value  of  machine-tool  processes,  the  labor  and  ma- 
terial, and  to  have  the  ability  to  analyze  the  many  prob- 
lems which  may  confront  him. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Alexander  and  Mr.  Rohrer 
only  partially  agree  in  their  definitions.  Mr.  Rohrer 
claims  that  electrical  engineers  should  be  familiar  with 
transformation  and  distribution,  also  with  machine 
work,  which  Mr.  Alexander  does  not  mention. 

NARROW  LIMIT  OF  EFFICIENCY. 

In  any  event  I  am  greatly  surprised  at  the  narrow 
limit  which  these  men  put  on  an  electrical  engineer. 

Apparently  they  look  upon  him  as  a  man  who  can 
improve  electrical  machinery.  This  really  is  the  point 
Mr.  Alexander  makes.  He  does  not  claim  that  the 
engineer  should  be  able  to  install  and  manage  this 
machinery,  and  all  that. 

Now  I  have  always  thought  that  inventing  is  some- 
thing that  can  not  be  taught  —  that  is,  it  is  something 
that  must  be  born  in  men. 

I  had  the  idea  that  an  electrical  engineer  was  a 
much  bigger  man  —  a  man  qualified  to  do  what  I  have 
outlined  below. 

There  is  demand  for  an  engineer  who  can  answer 
clearly  the  points  enumerated  when  called  upon  by  the 
authorities  of  a  town  that  is  considering  a  public  light- 
ing proposition,  and  I  had  supposed  the  technical  col- 
leges were  aiming  to  produce  this  sort  of  engineers. 

AN  ALL-AROUND  ENGINEER. 

The  first  thing  the  town  wants  to  know  is  what  the 

plant  will  cost,  what  it  will  cost  to  distribute  the  cur- 
is 


194     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

rent,  and  what  the  profit  will  be.    To  give  this  infor- 
mation the  engineer  must  be  able  to  determine: 

1.  The  size  of  the  plant  for  immediate  use. 

2.  The  needs  of  a  near  increased  demand  for  cur- 
rent. 

3.  The   plan   for  enlargement  at  a  considerable 
time  in  the  future. 

4.  The  general  lay-out  in  order  to  determine  the 
size  of  the  building. 

5.  The  amount  of  land  required. 

6.  The  location. 

7.  Whether  he  will  put  in  a  condensing  or  a  non- 
condensing  engine,  which  will  depend  on  the  facilities 
for  getting  water  for  condensing.     If  the  supply  of 
water  is  some  distance  off,  he  must  determine  whether 
it  will  pay  to  go  so  far  with  his  plant  and  carry  his 
current  so  far  in  order  to  get  the  benefit  of  condensa- 
tion. 

8.  To  settle  the  question  of  getting  the  fuel  to  this 
plant.    If  the  fuel  supply  is  off  some  distance,  the  ques- 
tion arises  of  putting  in  a  switch  or  of  hauling  his  coal 
by  team.  He  must  determine  whether  the  disadvantage 
of  getting  the  current  to  the  town  is  more  than  over- 
come by  the  gain  of  being  close  to  a  fuel  supply. 

9.  Convenience  in  handling  the  coal  in  connection 
with  the  boilers. 

10.  Laying  out  the  boiler-room,  and  the  size  of 
the  chimney  for  present  and  future  demands. 

11.  Choice  of  boilers — (a)   whether  tubular  or 
pipe  boilers ;   (b)  whether  the  plant  will  be  a  saturated- 
steam  or  a  superheated-steam  plant;    (c)  whether  he 
will  put  in  a  reciprocating  engine  or  a  turbine  engine ; 
(d)  what  make  of  engine. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      195 

12.  All  the  details  of  fixtures  connected  with  the 
engines  and  boilers. 

ON  THE  ELECTRICAL  SIDE. 

When  it  comes  to  the  electrical  side,  he  must  know 
all  about  the  theory  and  practice  of  that,  in  regard  to 
knowing  what  current  it  is  advantageous  to  use  and 
the  choice  of  generators. 

He  must  also  know  as  to  the  size  of  wiring  through 
the  town. 

He  must  also  be  familiar  with  the  practice  in  build- 
ing foundations,  arranging  and  installing  machinery 
to  the  best  advantage  for  the  present  needs  and  for 
future  additions. 

He  must  be  capable  of  making  a  reasonably  close 
estimate  of  the  cost  of  this  whole  apparatus. 

Now  let  us  see  how  near  the  technical  colleges  come 
to  producing  this  kind  of  an  electrical  engineer.  After 
eight  years  of  education  (high-school  and  college)  the 
college  has  turned  out  what  it  calls  an  electrical 
engineer.  What  kind  of  an  engineer  is  he  ? 

FAILURE  BY  THE  COLLEGES. 

It  may  be  seen  readily  from  what  these  colleges 
have  produced  that  they  have  failed  completely  in  com- 
ing anywhere  near  to  filling  the  bill  I  have  just  out- 
lined. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  practical  way  has  turned  out 
many  such  all-around  engineers.  So,  when  we  contrast 
the  college  method  with  the  practical  method  in  this 
line  alone,  the  practical  method  stands  in  the  propor- 
tion of  about  loo  to  10  for  the  college  method. 

Now,  if  the  practical  way  has  produced  the  100  per 
cent  engineer  —  and  is  still  producing  him  —  why  so 


196     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

much  fuss  and  so  much  expense  about  the  technical 
college  and  its  10  per  cent  engineer? 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  a  great  oversight  in  all  this 
engineering  business  that  none  of  the  technical  colleges 
has  made  an  attempt  to  meet  these  practical  require- 
ments. There  certainly  has  been  time  enough  devoted 
to  the  making  of  engineers  to  turn  out  those  of  this 
general  character,  and  I  had  supposed  heretofore  that 
this  was  the  aim  of  the  technical  college,  as  well  as  of 
such  companies  as  the  General  Electric. 

THE  "  ENGINEER  APPRENTICE.*' 

The  General  Electric  or  the  Westinghouse  does  not 
call  the  engineer  graduate  from  the  technical  college 
an  engineer,  but  an  "  engineer  apprentice  " ;  and  they 
give  him  four  years  more  of  training,  yet  still  say  he  is 
far  from  being  an  electrical  engineer  —  which  is  per- 
fectly evident. 

So  I  think  I  may  say  that,  after  the  General  Elec- 
tric, or  any  other  company,  has  put  four  years  more  on 
these  young  men,  they  still  may  be  called  "  engineer 
apprentices,"  and  they  still  have  a  great  deal  to  learn, 
which  will  take  them  several  years  more  to  acquire, 
and  this  can  not  be  learned  in  any  college  or  factory ; 
they  have  to  get  right  out  in  the  practical  operation  of 
the  •electric  plants  and  learn  them  and  from  them  by 
experience. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  way  to  make  electrical 
engineers  of  these  men,  after  the  General  Electric 
Company  is  through  with  them,  is  to  have  them  get 
out  and  take  a  job  in  helping  to  install  machinery,  and 
afterward  to  work  in  the  plant  taking  care  of  the 
machinery,  or  firing  and  working  up  as  a  practical 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      197 

engineer,  and  in  this  way  become  familiar  with  the 
care  of  the  machinery,  and  get  a  knowledge  of  the 
steam  side  of  it. 

GIVE  HIM  SOME  PRACTICAL  WORK. 

After  spending,  say,  two  years,  in  this  line  of  work, 
if  the  young  man  could  get  a  position  in  some  active, 
wide-awake  engineering  office  and  put  in  several  years 
there,  making  altogether  about  sixteen  years  in  learn- 
ing the  business,  he  might  finally  amount  to  something 
as  an  engineer;  but  he  would  still  be  lacking  in  the 
mechanical  way  of  knowing  how  to  make  things,  and 
through  this  knowledge  to  learn  of  their  merits,  which 
he  should  have  learned  in  the  machine-shop. 

I  would  say  here  in  regard  to  electrical  engineers  — 
as  I  have  said  in  the  chapter  on  civil  engineers  —  after 
they  have  all  the  knowledge  and  experience  I  have 
mentioned  they  will  not  amount  to  much  as  engineers 
unless  they  are  men  of  unusual  ability.  In  engineering, 
as  in  everything  else,  the  success  of  a  man  depends  on 
his  brains.  This  is  more  particularly  true  of  electrical 
engineering,  for  in  this  field  there  is  no  place  for  the 
man  of  mediocre  ability. 

A  VERY  BROAD  DIFFERENCE. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  broad  difference 
between  what  I  supposed  was  an  electrical  engineer 
and  what  the  General  Electric  Company  and  others  call 
an  electrical  engineer. 

Instead  of  knowing  what  I  have  assumed  he 
naturally  should  know,  he  is  an  exceedingly  small  man, 
even  judged  by  the  value  that  such  concerns  as  the 
General  Electric  Company  put  on  his  services  and 


198      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

talents.  To  have  eight  years  of  advanced  education 
and  four  years  as  an  engineer  apprentice  (twelve  years 
in  all),  and  then  to  get  thirty  cents  an  hour  for  his 
labor,  may  be  a  good  thing  for  the  General  Electric, 
the  Westinghouse,  and  other  manufacturers,  but  it 
ought  to  be  somewhat  discouraging  to  the  young  man 
who  has  gone  through  it. 

As  I  shall  show  later  on,  many  of  these  men  called 
electrical  engineers  are  not  getting  half  as  much  pay 
as  is  received  by  many  good  mechanics. 

I  am  fortunate  in  that  I  am  not  required  to  bear 
alone  the  burden  of  proof  as  to  the  defects  existing  in 
the  present  system  of  making  electrical  engineers ;  for 
I  have  in  my  possession  a  paper  by  Mr.  Magnus  W. 
Alexander,  on  "  The  New  Method  of  Training  Elec- 
trical Engineers,"  which  was  presented  at  the  twenty- 
fifth  annual  convention  of  the  American  Institute  of 
Electrical  Engineers,  at  Atlantic  City,  New  Jersey, 
June  29,  1908. 

In  this  pamphlet  of  thirteen  pages,  Mr.  Alexander 
has  gone  into  the  subject  exhaustively.  The  pamphlet, 
I  maintain,  proves  my  judgment  that  the  system  gen- 
erally in  vogue  of  producing  electrical  engineers  from 
technical-school  graduates  is  a  mistaken  idea. 

I  do  not  know  what  system  the  General  Electric 
Company  had  at  the  Lynn  plant  in  making  its 
engineers  up  to  the  time  described  in  Mr.  Alexander's 
paper,  but  I  do  know  that  in  Schenectady  the  company 
had  a  very  crude  one  not  long  ago,  referred  to  further 
on ;  and  I  presume  that  Mr.  Alexander  had  much  the 
same  system  at  his  plant  previous  to  going  exclusively 
into  the  making  of  engineers  from  technical-school 
graduates. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      199 

ONE  SYSTEM  THAT  FAILED. 

Some  time  ago,  however,  the  company  adopted  the 
following :  It  provided  a  two  years'  college  course  for 
the  college  boys,  expecting,  apparently,  in  this  way  to 
make  thorough  electrical  engineers  of  them.  The  com- 
pany instituted  what  it  called  a  "  thorough-going  sys- 
tem," educating  the  student-apprentices  on  all  lines,  in 
order  to  make  them  not  only  competent  engineers,  but 
acquainting  them  with  the  value  of  the  Company's 
products  as  compared  with  the  products  of  competitors. 

It  also  was  aimed  to  make  salesmen  through  this 
system.  There  were  special  shop  committees  to  look 
after  the  training. 

Mr.  Alexander  states  that  he  has  had  dealings  with 
several  hundred  of  these  graduates,  and  apparently  at 
one  time  had  great  faith  in  the  work  they  were  doing, 
but  finally  concluded  that  "  it  was  not  the  most  effect- 
ive method  of  training  designing  and  construction 
engineers." 

He  continues : 

It  fails  to  give  that  insight  into  the  practical  side  of 
electrical  engineering  and  into  the  proper  relation  of  the 
economic  forces  of  an  industrial  organization  that  is  more 
and  more  demanded  of  those  who  wish  to  take  leading 
positions  in  the  industrial  fields.  Moreover,  the  atmos- 
phere at  the  college  is  charged  with  little  of  the  serious- 
ness of  business.  The  correlation  of  theory  and  practice 
is  not  sufficiently  close  to  facilitate  the  proper  apprecia- 
tion of  the  sciences  in  their  concrete  applications. 

He  also  volunteers  the  information  that  he  thinks 
this  is  the  experience  of  other  people  who  have 
engaged  college  graduates.  He  goes  on  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  giving  good  reasons  why  colleges  fail 
and  explaining  their  shortcomings. 


200     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

A  THEORY  OF  CO-OPERATION. 

The  method  above  described  not  giving  the  desired 
results,  Mr.  Alexander  has  now  a  theory  of  what  he 
calls  cooperation,  and  he  has  become  convinced  that 
the  proposed  system  will  overcome  all  the  defects  of 
the  previous  plans. 

The  cooperative  plan  is  to  divide  the  time  equally 
between  the  factory  and  the  college,  but  as  to  the 
length  of  each  period  he  is  not  clear.  He  is  inclined, 
however,  to  think  that  a  month  in  the  shop  and  a 
month  in  the  college,  running  this  along  for  five  years 
and  winding  up  with  a  year  wholly  in  the  college 
would  bring  the  best  results.  He  takes  the  ground  that 
practice  and  theory  should  go  more  hand  in  hand  than 
has  been  the  case  thus  far. 

It  is  better  for  the  youth,  he  contends,  to  have  much 
more  of  the  practical  side  of  engineering.  One  of  the 
ideas  that  Mr.  Alexander  appears  to  have  on  this  mat- 
ter is  that  if  the  boy  has  the  association  of  the  factory 
it  will  prevent  him  from  being  demoralized  by  the  col- 
lege, and  that  it  will  bring  him  to  realize  what  the 
making  of  an  engineer  means  —  particularly  what 
being  a  successful  engineer  means. 

He  also  has  the  following  to  say  in  regard  to  the 
merits  of  the  plan : 

Above  all,  it  will  produce  engineers  technical  in  their 
specific  knowledge,  cultured  in  their  usefulness  of  life's 
activities,  sympathetic  in  their  understanding  of  the  aspira- 
tions and  needs  of  men,  and  broad  and  enlightened  in 
their  conception  of  their  own  obligations  as  engineers 
and  as  citizens. 

Of  course,  this  scheme  is  like  the  previous  one  he 
has  tried  —  in  that  it  is  simply  an  experiment.  It 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      201 

seems  to  me  to  be  a  new  idea  and  to  have  the  approval 
of  several  others;  but  in  view  of  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Alexander  has  failed  in  his  previous  schemes  there 
does  not  seem  to  be  any  particular  reason  why  one 
should  have  any  great  confidence  in  this,  as  it  has  not 
been  indorsed  by  any  one  who  has  had  experience  with 
it,  and  not  recommended  to  any  extent  by  those  who 
have  not  experimented  with  it. 

In  regard  to  this  new  system,  Mr.  Alexander  has  a 
great  deal  to  say  about  its  superiority  over  the  previous 
one  above  mentioned,  as  will  be  seen. 

TRYING  VARIOUS  PLANS. 

To  my  mind  when  he  adopts  a  new  system  and 
claims  great  merits  for  it  over  the  old  one,  it  naturally 
follows  that  the  old  one  was  defective  in  all  the  things 
for  which  he  claims  merit  in  the  new  one. 

The  astonishing  thing  about  the  whole  matter  is 
why  he  was  ever  so  enthusiastic  over  making  electrical 
engineers  from  the  technical-school  graduates,  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  he  now  sees  so  much  defect  in  it ;  and 
especially  is  it  strange  that  he  carried  the  thing  so  far 
as  to  try  hundreds  of  them. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  defects  of  the  former  sys- 
tem should  have  been  apparent  much  sooner  to  any 
practical  man. 

With  all  that  I  have  said  in  regard  to  Mr.  Alex- 
ander's previous  plans,  I  think  it  is  only  fair  to  say 
that  I  believe  his  present  plan  is  better  than  the  one  he 
has  abandoned  —  that  is  to  say,  he  is  now  getting 
toward  the  plan  that  has  a  little  sense  to  it,  for  the 
reason  that  it  gives  very  much  more  shop  practice,  but 
still  is  a  long  way  from  the  correct  one,  as  I  think  I 
can  make  clear  before  I  get  through  with  the  subject. 


202     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 
A  SERIOUS  QUESTION. 

It  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  Mr.  Alexander  in 
the  past  has  recommended  a  plan  that  involves  eight 
years  of  schooling  —  that  is,  four  years  in  high  school 
and  four  years  in  college  —  in  addition  to  two  years  in 
the  factory  and  two  years  in  the  engineering  depart- 
ment, making  twelve  years  in  all,  to  produce  what  is 
now,  according  to  his  own  statement,  a  failure  in 
making  engineers. 

This  fact  of  taking  twelve  of  the  best  years  of  a 
young  man's  life  is  certainly  a  sad  thing  to  reflect  upon 
—  and  not  only  taking  his  time  but  also  his  money  — 
and  a  few  such  men  in  this  country  are  responsible  for 
this  terrible  calamity. 

Mr.  Alexander's  factory  represents  more  brains, 
more  ingenuity,  more  schooling  and  more  that  counts 
for  education  than  all  of  the  technical  schools  and  col- 
leges that  exist. 

His  condemnation  of  the  technical  school  is  the 
most  severe  of  that  of  any  person  I  know. 

No  college  can  be  compared  for  one  moment  with 
the  educational  facilities  of  such  concerns  as  the  Gen- 
eral Electric.  Of  course,  the  company  not  only  has  the 
advantage  of  the  manufacturing  end  of  the  business, 
but  it  has  immensely  better  engineers  to  look  after  the 
theoretical  training  than  any  college  could  afford  to 
have. 

I  am  also  fortunate,  and  for  the  same  reason  given 
on  page  198,  in  finding  an  article  on  this  subject  by 
Mr.  A.  L.  Rohrer,  electrical  superintendent  of  the 
Schenectady  works  of  the  General  Electric  Company, 
in  a  publication  of  1904.  In  this  article  Mr.  Rohrer 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      203 

has  this  to  say,  in  substance,  on  the  subject  of  making 
electrical  engineers: 

VIEWS  OF  A.  L.  ROHRER. 

He  states  that,  at  the  time  of  his  writing,  they  have 
264  men  and  these  are  all  used  in  the  testing  depart- 
ment. He  goes  on  to  say  on  the  subject  of  the 
qualifications  of  men  for  this  department : 

First.  They  must  be  graduates  of  some  technical 
school,  or 

Second.  They  must  have  had  such  experience  in  a 
machine  shop,  repair  shop  or  central  station  as  would, 
in  the  company's  opinion,  enable  them  to  do  satis- 
factory work  in  that  department. 

I  understand  from  other  sources  that  in  Schenec- 
tady  some  years  ago  they,  to  a  certain  extent,  took 
green  men  right  into  the  testing  department,  appar- 
ently to  make  electrical  engineers  of  them. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  Mr.  Rohrer  makes  a 
tremendous  drop  from  educated  men  having  eight 
years  of  schooling  to  men  who  have  had  neither  college 
nor  factory  training.  So  we  have  in  the  case  of  Mr. 
Rohrer  more  of  the  inconsistency  referred  to  in  regard 
to  Mr.  Alexander. 

I  do  not  agree  with  Mr.  Rohrer  that  he  can  make 
electrical  engineers  without  considerable  theoretical 
and  mechanical  training. 

From  the  General  Electric  Company  I  get  some 
more  rather  important  information  in  regard  to  what 
the  demand  for  technically  educated  men  amounts  to. 

NOT  VALUED  HIGHLY. 

In  the  company's  system  boys  are  taken  for  two 
years  in  the  testing  department,  starting  for  the  first 


204     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

six  months  at  20  cents  an  hour  until  they  get  275/2 
cents  an  hour.  The  boys  then  are  taken  to  the 
engineering  department,  where  they  start  in  at  about 
the  same  pay  they  have  been  getting  in  the  testing 
department,  and  spend  two  years  there. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  they  start  in  at  prac- 
tically laboring  men's  wages,  and  after  spending  about 
twelve  years  they  get  the  average  mechanic's  wages,  or 
about  three  dollars  for  ten  hours'  work. 

Just  here  I  would  mention  the  fact  that  in  Ger- 
many, it  has  been  stated  by  a  professor,  this  same  class 
of  men  —  technical-school  graduates  —  who  go  into 
the  factories  do  not  get  any  pay  at  all.  From  this  it 
will  be  seen  what  German  manufacturers  think  of  the 
technically  educated  men  —  and  yet  we  hear  so  much 
of  the  value  the  Germans  place  on  such  education. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Alexander,  of  the  General  Elec- 
tric Company,  referring  to  his  paper  on  engineers  from 
which  I  have  quoted,  I  suggested  that  his  company 
undertake  to  make  its  own  electrical  engineers. 

He  answered  to  this  suggestion  that  it  was  not  the 
business  of  a  manufacturing  institution  to  manufacture 
engineers. 

In  reply  to  this  I  would  say  that  I  think  it  is  rather 
late  for  Mr.  Alexander  to  take  this  position.  He 
recognizes  the  necessity  for  making  mechanics,  and 
does  make  them,  and  he  goes  into  considerable  school- 
ing in  order  to  insure  his  getting  good  mechanics. 

In  the  engineering  line  he  takes  technical  men  and 
gives  them  two  years  of  education  in  order  to  make 
them  good  engineers  and  also  puts  them  several  years 
in  the  engineering  department,  which  is  practically 
going  half  way  in  making  engineers. 

So  as  to  the  policy  I  suggested  I  think  it  would 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      205 

be  but  a  small  step  to  make  the  engineers  complete, 
particularly  in  view  of  the  fact  he  could  make  them 
to  an  enormous  advantage,  and  the  making  of  his 
engineers  is  of  the  same  importance  to  the  success  of 
the  business  as  the  making  of  mechanics. 

Suppose  he  should  make  these  engineers  himself 
and  require  them  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  learning 
the  business,  the  same  as  the  colleges  do.  Can  not  it 
be  seen  that  this  plan  would  be  an  enormous  benefit  to 
both  him  and  these  young  men?  In  this  way  he  not 
only  would  be  receiving  pay  from  them  during  this 
period,  but  would  then  get  real  engineers,  and  the 
young  men,  by  becoming  real  engineers  in  this  way, 
would  get  something  of  great  value  for  their  money, 
whereas  the  colleges  can  give  them  only  the  most 
meager  qualifications. 

A  VALUABLE  SUGGESTION. 

This  suggestion,  I  maintain,  is  worth  millions  of 
dollars  to  the  General  Electric  Company  and  an  equal 
amount  to  the  engineers  that  are  made  in  this  way. 

What  factory  that  is  paying  for  labor  can  compete 
against  one  in  which  the  workmen  actually  pay  for  the 
privilege  of  working? 

And  as  the  help  would  cost  nothing,  why  not  use 
the  tuition  fees  to  buy  material,  and  thus  get  both  help 
and  material  practically  without  paying  for  it? 

Another  peculiar  position  that  Mr.  Alexander  takes 
on  the  subject  is  in  regard  to  the  early  electrical 
engineers.  He  admits  that  good  engineers  were  made 
in  the  evolution  and  development  of  the  business,  but 
states  that  this  method  of  making  engineers  is  now 
impracticable  because  the  business  is  brought  up  to  a 


206     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

high  degree  of  perfection,  and  it  was  only  through 
working  on  this  evolution  that  they  got  to  be  great 
engineers,  and  that  the  technical-school  education  is 
now  a  necessity,  taking  the  place  of  the  advantages  the 
early  engineers  had  in  digging  out  the  science  of  the 
business. 

AN  ABSURD  PROPOSITION. 

Now,  to  my  mind,  this  is  absolutely  an  absurd  and 
ridiculous  proposition,  as  I  can  not  see  how  the  tech- 
nical-school education  can  take  the  place  of  the 
research  work  of  the  early  engineers.  Nor  do  I  under- 
stand on  what  ground  he  can  claim  that  better 
engineers  were  made  before  this  science  of  electricity 
was  thoroughly  understood  and  was  being  developed 
than  can  be  made  to-day  in  a  thoroughly  up-to-date 
factory,  where  every  feature  of  the  science  of  the  busi- 
ness and  the  skill  and  ingenuity  of  manufacturing  have 
been  brought  up  to  the  very  highest  pitch ;  nor  is  there 
any  ground  for  such  a  claim. 

To  assert  that  a  person  can  not  be  educated  in  a 
factory  completely  upsets  the  theory  of  education.  If  a 
person  can  not  be  advantageously  taught  at  the  factory 
where  the  article  in  which  he  is  interested  is  made  and 
thoroughly  understood,  and  where  the  atmosphere  is 
charged  with  the  science  of  the  thing,  then  there  is  no 
place  on  earth  where  he  can  be  educated. 

I  think  in  connection  with  the  subject  it  is  well  to 
look  into  several  matters  that  few  people  consider,  even 
among  those  who  are  actually  concerned  —  and  that  is 
the  great  economical  factor  of  learning  by  observation 
and  association. 

If  we  stop  to  reflect,  of  course,  we  can  readily  see 
that  an  enormous  percentage  of  everything  we  know 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      207 

we  gain  in  this  way,  and  the  actual  schooling  that  we 
find  important  is  a  very  small  part  of  the  whole. 

We  all  know  that  the  most  highly  educated  men  are 
those  who  have  traveled,  read,  and  associated  with 
numbers  of  intelligent  persons;  and  what  applies  in 
this  general  way  applies  particularly  to  mechanics. 

VALUE  OF  ASSOCIATION. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  a  boy  goes  into  a  factory  to 
learn  any  kind  of  trade,  it  is  a  very  small  percentage  of 
the  trade  that  is  taught  to  him.  He  learns  most  by 
observation  and  association,  by  seeing  the  things  done. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  teach  him. 

This  not  only  applies  to  simple  mechanics,  but 
applies  to  some  lines  that  have  science  in  them. 

Take  the  carpenter.  There  is  no  occasion  for  him 
to  be  taught  the  science  of  bridging  floor  joists,  putting 
in  braces  and  making  simple  trusses.  The  greater  part 
of  this  he  can  see  and  understand  its  importance,  and 
after  seeing,  it  requires  no  science  to  enable  him  to  do 
the  work. 

I  think  we  may  go  a  step  farther  and  take  the  case 
of  an  unseen  science,  like  electricity.  While  a  boy  can 
not  learn  anything  of  this  science  by  observation,  he 
can  learn  a  large  amount  of  it  by  association.  To  the 
contrary,  a  boy  going  to  a  technical  school  learns 
nothing  by  observation  and  association  to  his  advan- 
tage. 

Along  the  same  line  I  will  say  that  I  heartily  agree 
with  what  Mr.  Alexander  has  to  say  in  his  paper  on 
the  other  demoralizing  effects  that  colleges  have  on 
boys,  and  to  which  I  have  referred  previously  —  all  of 
which  is  obviated  in  the  method  of  making  engineers 
which  I  shall  outline  hereafter.  I  will  say,  in  addition 


208     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

to  the  demoralization  that  Mr.  Alexander  mentions, 
that  the  industrial  one  is  not  the  worst ;  the  moral  one 
is  infinitely  worse. 

This  being  a  fact,  I  can  not  understand  how  any 
practical  man  would  ever  think  of  sending  a  boy  to  a 
technical  school  to  learn  that  which  he  can  learn  in  the 
factory  at  the  time  he  is  learning  the  practical  mechan- 
ical part  of  the  business,  and  where  he  is  making  a 
living  at  the  same  time;  in  other  words,  beginning  at 
the  right  end  of  the  matter. 

WHERE  ADVANTAGE  LIES. 

Take  a  concern  like  the  Westinghouse  or  the  Gen- 
eral Electric.  A  boy  learning  a  trade  with  either  of 
these  companies  has,  to  my  mind,  an  enormous  advan- 
tage in  learning  the  business  of  electrical  engineering. 
The  whole  surroundings  and  enthusiasm  of  great 
factories  can  not  but  make  an  impression  on  the  boy 
of  the  importance  of  industry,  and  the  grandeur  of  the 
business,  its  necessary  economical  operation,  and  the 
advantage  of  knowing  everything  associated  with  it. 
It  inspires  him  with  the  most  decided  love  and  admir- 
ation for  the  work  with  which  he  is  connected. 

Any  boy  who  has  the  right  spirit  in  him  certainly 
would  be  greatly  influenced  in  his  manly  instincts  by 
such  surroundings. 

I  don't  think  there  is  any  pleasure  to  be  compared 
with  that  a  mechanic  gets  out  of  a  piece  of  good  work. 
On  leaving  the  factory  at  night  he  can  see  that  he  has 
accomplished  a  good  day's  work  and  produced  a  good 
job.  This  certainly  adds  much  to  his  pleasure,  espe- 
cially when  he  sees  one  of  the  great  turbine  engines, 
such  as  the  General  Electric  Company  makes,  of  20,000 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      209 

horse-power,  and  he  feels  that  he  has  made  an  essential 
part  of  it. 

It  seems  to  me  this  must  make  him  feel  like  a  man ; 
whereas,  the  technically  educated  man,  who  has  been 
taught  to  despise  labor  and  industry  and  to  depend  on 
science  for  his  livelihood,  has  nothing  of  this  pleasure 
and  satisfaction. 

How  DISCONTENT  Is  BRED. 

And  the  question  comes  in  here  that  I  have  touched 
upon  in  some  of  my  previous  papers,  of  the  breeding 
of  discontent  and  disloyalty  and  the  disorganizing  of  a 
business  that  grows  out  of  bringing  in  outsiders  to 
learn  something  that  the  boys  in  the  factory  know  and 
understand  fully  as  well;  and  these  factory-trained 
boys  are  more  competent  to  fill  the  higher  positions 
than  are  college  boys  who  are  brought  in. 

I  can  not  imagine  anything  more  demoralizing  to  a 
factory  than  to  conduct  it  on  these  lines;  that  is,  by 
taking  away  the  factory  boy's  natural  right  to  advance- 
ment, which  he  has  earned  by  his  industry,  skill  and 
loyalty.  It  not  only  affects  the  boys  who  are  directly 
interested,  but  it  has  a  demoralizing  effect  upon  the 
whole  factory,  as  the  workmen  are  not  slow  to  see 
these  blunders. 

Every  man  who  has  a  boy  who  is  deprived  of  his 
rights  gets  soured,  and  the  boy's  friends  get  soured  at 
the  stupid,  blundering  injustice  of  taking  away  the 
boy's  natural  rights. 

It  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance  that  the 
workmen  throughout  the  factory  can  see  that  their 
boys  are  getting  a  chance  to  reach  the  higher  positions. 


210      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

A  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  THE  COLLEGE. 

You  ask  perhaps:  As  you  condemn  existing 
methods  of  training  electrical  engineers,  what  method 
would  you  suggest?  My  recommendation  is  this: 

Select  boys  for  the  machine-shop  apprentices  with 
the  greatest  care.  Watch  over  them  carefully  in  the 
first  instance  to  see  that  they  are  what  the  employers 
are  seeking  as  material  for  good  machinists.  Give 
them  a  little  outside  training,  as  the  General  Electric  is 
doing.  If  the  foremen  who  keep  close  eye  on  the  boys 
discover  that  any  of  them  has  unusual  ability,  let  such 
be  put  in  the  line  of  direct  training  for  electrical 
engineering. 

Such  boys  as  this,  after  having  two  years  of  prac- 
tical training  in  the  machine-shop  —  say  one  year  at 
benchwork  and  a  year  at  toolwork  —  shifting  around 
considerably,  would  get  the  knowledge  of  that  part  of 
the  work  that  is  required  to  make  of  them  good  elec- 
trical engineers. 

Then  let  them  be  put  in  the  testing  department  a 
sufficient  length  of  time  to  learn,  under  the  same  care- 
ful supervision,  what  is  to  be  learned  there,  but  see 
that  they  are  advanced  as  rapidly  as  possible. 

From  this  department  a  short  course  in  the  draft- 
ing room  should  be  given. 

Next,  they  might  be  put  in  the  erecting  and  instal- 
ling department;  and  then  in  the  department  where 
they  have  the  steam  and  electric  plants  for  a  sufficient 
time  to  get  a  knowledge  not  only  of  the  electrical 
machinery,  but  also  of  steam  engines  and  boilers. 

Now,  this  whole  time,  I  should  say,  would  not  con- 
sume more  than  six  years ;  and  in  such  cases  the  com- 
panies would  get  much  better  engineers  than  they  have 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      211 

been  getting,  and  the  boys  would  be  earning  their  liv- 
ing the  whole  time. 

CAREFULLY  PREPARED  READING. 

During  this  time  the  boys  could  attend  night-school 
as  much  as  is  necessary,  and  be  furnished  with  books 
on  the  science  of  the  different  lines  of  electrical  appara- 
tus, books  that  contain  only  such  things  as  the  best 
practical  men  know  to  be  essential.  If  necessary,  lec- 
tures could  be  given  advantageously  by  the  companies' 
own  engineers,  who  know  decidedly  better  what  these 
boys  require  than  any  school  teacher  could  possibly 
know. 

It  would  be  a  good  plan  for  the  companies  to  pre- 
pare their  own  text-books,  so  that  only  essential  things 
regarding  theories  would  be  taught  the  apprentices. 

Such  great  concerns  as  I  have  named,  I  maintain, 
could  easily  afford  to  give  boys  the  training  here  out- 
lined. What  little  this  would  cost  the  companies,  in  my 
estimation,  certainly  would  be  a  good  investment  for 
the  factory,  as  such  boys  would  always  feel  under 
obligations  to  the  factory  and  would  be  loyal  and 
devoted  to  the  firm.  Undoubtedly,  also  they  would 
grow  into  positions  where  they  could  do  the  factory  a 
great  deal  of  good.  Such  men  are  not  likely  to  be 
running  away  because  they  can  get  a  half-dollar  or  a 
dollar  a  day  extra  somewhere  else. 

I  regret  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  get  from  Mr. 
Westinghouse,  or  the  Westinghouse  Company,  an 
expression  of  opinion  on  this  matter  of  making  elec- 
trical engineers,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  conditions 
there  would  be  found  to  be  much  the  same  as  in  the 
factories  of  the  General  Electric  Company. 


CHAPTER  V. 
MEDICAL  EDUCATION. 

I  think  that  the  readers  who  have  followed  me 
through  my  investigations  of  different  lines  of  higher 
schooling  must  have  seen  that  there  is  quite  a  varia- 
tion in  the  degrees  of  curse  pertaining  to  these  schools. 

The  majority  of  the  colleges  that  give  a  classical 
education  only  I  believe  no  longer  deceive  the  public 
to  any  great  extent,  for  I  have  noticed  that  but  few  of 
them  pretend  to  give  the  student  anything  of  practical 
value.  All  they  profess  to  do  is  to  make  him  an  orna- 
mental member  of  society.  If  any  one  is  deceived  by 
them  it  is  largely  his  own  fault,  as  sufficient  light  has 
been  thrown  on  this  particular  subject  for  some  time 
to  protect  people  against  any  imposition  from  this 
source. 

OVERPRODUCTION  OF  LAWYERS. 

But,  in  the  case  of  the  technical  and  agricultural 
schools,  the  curse  of  the  education  they  give  should  be 

prefaced  by  a  large  D ,  for,  as  I  have  shown,  these 

institutions  are  doing  an  enormous  amount  of  damage. 
Still,  this  damage  affects  the  student  only,  and  not  the 
public.  When  we  come  to  the  making  of  lawyers, 
however,  we  strike  a  branch  of  higher  schooling  where 

the  curse  should  be  prefaced  by  several  D 's,  not 

only  on  account  of  the  colleges  themselves,  but  because 
of  the  results  coming  from  them. 

Without  going  into  details,  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  one-half  of  all  the  crime,  degradation,  imposition, 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      213 

fraud  and  corruption  that  we  find  existing  about  us 
to-day  is  due  to  the  lawyers.  It  is  this  class  of  men 
who  have  made  wholesale  robbery  and  theft  possible, 
and  who  have  given  to  these  crimes  the  air  of  respecta- 
bility; they  are  the  ones  who  humbug  judges  and 
juries  and  stretch  the  laws  so  that  the  unscrupulous 
may  impose  on  the  public.  In  fact,  it  is  the  lawyers 
who  stand  like  a  stone  wall  between  the  great  criminals 
and  the  public  and  enable  the  rascals  to  keep  out  of 
the  penitentiary. 

When  important  criminals  are  on  trial  it  will  be 
found  that  double  their  number  of  rascally  lawyers  are 
endeavoring,  by  sharp  tactics  and  unscrupulous  meth- 
ods, to  free  them  and  thus  defeat  the  ends  of  justice. 
These  people  not  only  are  guilty  of  an  enormous 
amount  of  stealing  themselves,  but  are  the  back- 
bone of  all  other  great  thieves. 

The  overcrowding  of  the  legal  profession  is  the 
chief  cause  of  the  cussedness  of  this  line  of  education, 
the  number  of  lawyers  produced  being  so  large  they 
are  obliged  to  resort  to  all  sorts  of  dishonest  measures 
in  order  to  make  a  living.  Probably  every  business 
man  or  manufacturer  has  learned  from  his  own  expe- 
rience what  a  curse  this  class  of  men  is.  They  will 
hang  around  one's  place  of  business  to  find  out  when 
an  accident  occurs,  so  that  they  may  secure  a  case,  and 
should  they  succeed,  they  resort  to  all  sorts  of  sharp 
practice  for  the  purpose  of  making  trouble. 

I  have  in  mind  such  an  instance  that  occurred  in 
my  own  business.  This  case  grew  out  of  a  trifling 
matter  that  from  the  outset  it  was  apparent  we  had 
nothing  to  do  with  and  were  not  responsible  for,  yet 
the  unscrupulous  lawyers  and  idiotic  judges  kept  it  in 


214      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

the  courts  for  ten  or  twelve  years  at  a  cost  to  us  of 
over  $12,000. 

Coming  now  to  the  subject  of  this  chapter,  "  Med- 
ical Education,"  I  find  it  difficult  to  determine  which 

should  be  prefaced  with  the  greater  number  of  D 's 

—  the  law  colleges  or  the  medical  schools. 

The  overcrowding  of  the  medical  profession  brings 
about,  conditions  quite  similar  to  those  that  have  just 
been  described  in  referring  to  the  lawyers ;  that  is, 
by  reason  of  this  overproduction,  doctors  are  obliged 
to  resort  to  all  kinds  of  trickery,  sharp  practice  and 
imposition  in  order  to  obtain  business. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  amount  of  damage 
thus  caused,  but  doubtless  it  is  very  great.  Many 
times  doctors  will  make  well  people  ill,  or,  when 
already  ill,  will  prolong  their  illness,  or  will  perform 
unnecessary  operations. 

FACTS  REGARDING  THIS  MATTER  FROM  A  RELIABLE 
SOURCE. 

I  have  been  fortunate  in  finding  a  paper  delivered 
twenty-five  years  ago  by  one  of  our  leading  physicians 
before  the  Alumni  Association  of  the  Chicago  Medical 
College.  As  this  makes  out  my  case  as  I  anticipated 
when  I  decided  to  take  up  this  subject,  and  therefore 
relieves  me  from  the  necessity  of  making  an  investi- 
gation myself,  I  quote  from  it  as  follows : 

GENTLEMEN, —  Before  announcing  the  topic  of  my 
address  to-night,  I  will  state  that  I  recognize  the  fact 
that  at  our  annual  meetings,  occurring,  as  they  do,  on  the 
commencement  day  of  our  college,  it  is  customary  to  make 
the  professional  outlook  as  cheerful  and  bright  as  possible ; 
to  picture  in  glowing  colors  the  noble  and  heroic  life  of 
the  physician,  and  to  dwell  with  emphasis  on  the  fact  that 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      215 

there  is  always  "  room  at  the  top."  Therefore,  in  deviat- 
ing to-night  from  the  usual  course  pursued,  and,  instead, 
presenting  a  few  sober  facts  to  your  consideration,  I  trust 
you  will  find  a  sufficient  explanation  in  the  urgent  neces- 
sity, the  duty  we  owe  to  each  other,  to  thoroughly  discuss 
the  dangers  of  the  hour,  embraced  in  my  theme  to-night: 
The  overcrowding  of  the  profession,  its  causes,  effects,  and 
the  remedies  to  be  applied. 

The  curse  of  the  profession  to-day  is  a  multiplicity  of 
medical  colleges,  most  of  which  are  of  an  inferior  type, 
veritable  diploma  mills.  In  the  United  States,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  fifty  millions,  we  have  twice  as  many  medical 
schools  as  exist  in  all  the  following  countries  combined, 
namely:  The  German  Empire,  the  Austrian  Empire,  the 
Russian  Empire,  Great  Britain,  France,  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way, representing  a  population  of  three  hundred  millions. 
In  Chicago  alone  we  have  more  medical  schools  than  may 
be  found  in  the  whole  Austro-Hungarian  Empire,  and  we 
graduate  in  this  city  this  year  more  physicians  than  are 
annually  licensed  to  practice  in  the  whole  German  Empire 
with  a  population  of  forty-five  millions.  Think  of  it,  gen- 
tlemen!  It  ought  to  make  our  cheeks  tingle  with  shame, 
for  the  existence  of  such  facts  constitutes  a  national  dis- 
honor, reflects  discredit  upon  every  American  physician, 
and  justly  makes  us  the  laughingstock  of  the  whole 
civilized  world. 

Consider  for  a  moment  the  origin  of  the  average  med- 
ical school  in  this  State.  Any  five  physicians,  actuated  by 
an  intense  desire  to  increase  a  limited  practice,  can  club 
together,  forward  $4.50  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  receive 
by  return  mail  the  necessary  charter,  and  another  medical 
college  is  organized.  What  is  true  of  this  State  is  true 
of  every  other  State  in  the  Union,  and  thus  it  happens  that 
we  see  medical  colleges  springing  up  everywhere,  in  cities, 
villages  and  out-of-the-way  places,  without  any  reference 
to  the  needs  of  the  profession  or  for  the  sake  of  the  com- 
munities, but  simply  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  "  organ- 
izers "  an  unfair  advantage  over  their  competitors  in  the 
practice  of  medicine.  The  average  medical  college,  then, 
is  nothing  but  an  advertisement  scheme  to  enrich  the 


216      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

few  at  the  expense  of  many.  It  enables  the  physician, 
utterly  unknown  outside  the  circle  of  a  limited  practice 
and  his  immediate  relatives,  to  suddenly  blossom  forth  as 
a  professor  of  the  principles  and  practice  of  medicine  or 
of  surgery;  it  enables  him  to  adorn  his  letter-heads  with 
the  seductive  title,  and  gives  him  an  opportunity  to  explain 
to  the  unsophisticated  patient  any  absence  from  home  by 
the  statement  that  he  was  lecturing  at  the  college.  It 
enables  him  to  advertise  in  various  and  many  ways,  and 
at  the  same  time  not  conflict  with  the  code  of  ethics.  No 
wonder,  then,  that  in  Chicago  alone  we  have  over  one 
hundred  and  fifty  professors  and  lecturers  on  medicine,  or 
about  one  professor  to  every  six  physicians,  although  even 
this  low  ratio  is  constantly  diminishing,  so  that  in  time 
the  physician  who  is  nothing  but  a  plain  M.D.  will  be 
indeed  a  rarity  —  a  startling  curiosity. 

Consider,  again,  the  course  of  instruction  in  vogue  in 
nearly  all  of  our  medical  colleges.  Two  courses  of  lec- 
tures, of  from  four  to  five  months'  duration,  in  each 
course  the  same  lectures  repeated,  transform  the  medical 
student,  whether  fresh  from  college,  from  a  store,  or  from 
the  farm,  into  an  M.D.,  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
pertaining  to  that  degree.  Well  may  the  learned  and  elo- 
quent Professor  Pepper,  of  Philadelphia,  in  a  most  admi- 
rable essay  on  higher  medical  education,  exclaim,  "  Can 
it  be  that  the  apprentice  must  practice  five  years  before 
he  is  regarded  as  a  skilled  workman,  fitted  to  mend  or 
make  rude  machines  of  iron  or  brass,  and  that  in  this 
land  of  intelligence  and  common  sense  one  who  has  studied 
medicine  less  than  one-third  that  time  may  have  his 
license  to  meddle  with  and  make  or  mar  that  most  won- 
derful machine  —  man's  body  —  infinitely  complex,  gifted 
with  boundless  capacities,  and  freighted  with  the  awful 
responsibility  of  an  immortal  soul  ? "  .  .  .  But,  alas ! 
so  it  is,  and,  as  Professor  Pepper  is  my  authority  in  stat- 
ing that  the  vast  majority  of  American  medical  students 
receive  the  degree  in  medicine  without  ever  having  felt 
a  sick  man's  pulse  or  listened  to  the  sounds  of  the  lungs 
or  heart,  I  question  which  is  the  greatest  public  calamity, 
an  occasional  epidemic  of  cholera,  or  the  regular  recurring 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      217 

annual  epidemic  of  some  four  thousand  doctors  let  loose 
on  an  innocent  and  unsuspecting  public? 

Compare,  but  for  one  moment,  the  system  of  medical 
education  in  force  in  all  other  civilized  countries.  Take 
Germany,  for  example,  which  is  a  fair  type  of  them  all, 
although  in  several  of  the  other  countries  the  course  is 
even  longer  than  there.  But  one  comparison  will  suffice 
for  our  purpose.  To  matriculate  in  any  German  university 
the  medical  student  must  pass  a  preliminary  examination 
in  Latin,  Greek,  German,  history,  mathematics,  and  the 
elements  of  natural  science.  The  course  of  lectures  extends 
over  four  years,  nine  and  one-half  months  in  each  year, 
and  is  as  follows : 

Number  of  hours  weekly. 

Chemistry   6  for  I  year 

Physics    4  for  I  year 

Zoology     and      Comparative 

Anatomy  3  f or  I  year 

Botany  3  for  i  year 

Mineralogy  and  Geology 2  for  i  year 

Anatomy,      Histology      and 

Preparation  of  Specimens. .  10  for  i  year 

Physiology,     with     work     in 

Laboratory   8  for  i  year 

General  Pathology,  Patholog- 
ical Anatomy,  with  practical 

work 6  for  i  year 

Pharmacology,       Toxicology, 

Prescription  Writing 2  for  I  year 

Special  Pathology,  Medical 
Clinics,  Course  on  Physical 

Diagnosis    10  for  2  years 

General  and  Special  Surgery, 
Clinics,  Bandaging,  Operat- 
ing    5  for  2  years 

Obstetrics    and    Gynaecology, 

Clinics    3  for  i  year 

Eye  and  Ear  Clinics,  use  of 

Ophthalmoscope,  Operations  4  for  i  year 

Forensic  Medicine  2  for  i  year 


218      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

Examinations  are  held  at  the  end  of  the  second  year 
(tentamen  physicum)  upon  anatomy,  physiology,  chemis- 
try, physics,  botany,  zoology  and  mineralogy,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  fourth  year,  upon  the  remaining  subjects  of  the 
course.  This  latter  examination  precedes  more  or  less 
closely  (according  to  the  proficiency  of  the  candidate)  the 
final  examination,  which  is  conducted  by  the  faculty,  each 
professor  examining  the  candidate  in  his  own  department. 
After  passing  the  examination  and  presenting  a  printed 
thesis,  he  receives  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine.  This 
degree,  however,  does  not  entitle  him  to  practice,  and  he 
has  still  to  pass  another  examination  before  a  State  board 
of  examiners.  This  examination  is  divided  into  five  sec- 
tions, and  includes,  besides  a  theoretical  examination,  the 
preparation  and  demonstration  of  specimens  of  the  osse- 
ous, vascular  and  nervous  systems;  the  demonstration 
of  an  autopsy  and  a  practical  examination  in  medicine, 
obstetrics  and  gynaecology,  physiology  and  microscopy.  As 
showing  the  severity  with  which  the  State  examinations 
are  conducted,  it  may  be  stated  that,  on  an  average,  twenty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  graduates  fail. 

Who  are  the  teachers?  Four  dollars  and  fifty  cents 
does  not  constitute  a  professorship  in  German  universi- 
ties. Those  temples  of  science  are  occupied  by  men  whose 
names  appear  in  every  text-book  of  medicine  and  are 
familiar  to  every  student  and  physician,  first  as  lecturers, 
then  by  reason  of  original  work  and  popularity  promoted 
to  the  position  of  so-called  extraordinary  professors,  and 
finally,  when  known  as  authorities,  promoted  to  the  high 
positions  of  ordinary  professors,  they  occupy  the  loftiest 
stations  in  public  esteem  and  admiration,  and  their  hon- 
ored names  endure  forever. 

From  the  fact  that  we  have  more  medical  schools  than 
can  be  found  in  the  rest  of  the  whole  world,  it  naturally 
follows  that  we  have  also  a  greater  proportion  of  physi- 
cians to  the  population  than  exists  in  any  other  country. 
According  to  the  census  of  1880,  in  a  population  of 
fifty  millions  we  had  85,761  physicians,  or  one  physician 
to  every  585  persons. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      219 

In  France,  the  proportion  is  one  physician  to  every 
2,000  persons. 

In  Austria,  one  to  every  2,500  persons. 

In  Germany,  one  to  every  3,000  persons. 

In  Italy,  one  to  every  3,500  persons. 

In  Sweden,  one  to  every  7,500  persons. 

And  so  on. 

Permit  me  to  again  quote  Professor  Pepper:  .  .  . 
"  The  profession  at  large  are  awakening  to  the  fact  that 
its  ranks  have  been  fearfully  overstocked  by  the  selfish- 
ness of  the  medical  schools,  and  I  make  bold  to  assert, 
well  knowing  the  unparalleled  depression  of  all  business 
interests,  that  there  are  but  few  classes  of  the  community 
of  which  a  larger  proportion  are  not  earning  a  living  than 
of  the  medical  profession." 

One  of  the  most  prominent  physicians  in  New  York 
city,  who  has  given  a  great  deal  of  thought  and  attention 
to  the  matter  under  consideration,  states  his  opinion  thus : 
"  In  reality,  to-day,  a  young  man  without  money  or  influ- 
ence, whatever  his  talents,  address  or  attainments,  and 
however  exceptionally  equipped  for  his  work,  has  less 
prospect  of  success,  starting  in  the  world  as  a  physician, 
than  in  any  other  department  of  intellectual  activity. 
Energy  might  avail  him  in  business,  but  not  in  medicine, 
and  the  more  energetic  he  is,  the  more  it  will  gall  him  to 
wait  for  patients  that  never  come,  and  starve  while  they 
are  coming.  I  could  tell  you  the  subsequent  history  of 
many  promising  graduates,  such  tales  of  broken  hearts, 
blighted  ambition,  disappointed  hopes  and  wrecked  lives, 
from  no  fault  of  their  own,  only  because  there  are  three 
doctors  where  only  one  is  needed.  And  this  is  the  pass 
to  which  our  present  system  of  medical  education  has 
brought  a  once  noble  profession."  The  Boston  Medical 
Journal  —  the  most  conservative  medical  journal  in  the 
United  States  —  has  the  following  editorial  in  a  recent 
number:  "The  swarms  of  young  men  that  are  about 
to  invade  the  numerous  medical  schools  might  well  pause 
before  setting  forth  on  this  so  perilous  career.  Such  delib- 
eration is  especially  proper  on  the  part  of  those  who  con- 
template exercising  the  profession  as  a  livelihood,  and 


220      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

who  possess  no  resources  on  which  to  fall  back  for  a 
series  of  years  during  the  waiting  for  patients.  There 
may  be  room  in  the  upper  story,  but  there  is  no  lack  of 
eager,  hungry,  able  competitors  for  the  vacant  space  that 
is  there." 

But,  gentlemen,  what  use  is  there  in  quoting  the  opin- 
ions of  others  ?  There  is  not  an  alumnus  present  to-night 
who  can  not  confirm  all  that  has  been  said,  from  his  own 
personal  experience  and  observation. 

The  action  of  our  diploma  mills,  in  adding  each  year 
thousands  of  young  men  to  the  ranks  of  a  profession 
already  filled  and  overflowing,  is  rapidly  producing  an 
army  of  genteel  paupers,  too  proud  to  beg,  too  honest  to 
steal,  but  too  poor  to  exist. 

My  remarks,  gentlemen,  are  not  dictated  by  any  bitter 
feeling.  My  own  lines  have  fallen  in  pleasant  places. 
But  it  is  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  which  I  assert,  the 
result  of  personal  investigation,  the  acquaintance  with 
many  in  the  profession,  who,  though  brilliantly  endowed, 
are  struggling  for  a  mere  pittance  by  reason  of  the  terri- 
ble competition ;  the  tales  of  poverty,  debt  and  misfortune 
which  it  has  been  my  lot  to  be  obliged  to  listen  to  —  it 
is  for  these  reasons,  gentlemen,  that  I  protest  against  this 
infamous  system  of  medical  education  in  this  country ; 
this  starting  of  medical  colleges  where  none  are  needed; 
multiplying  them  where  there  are  already  far  more  than 
are  required ;  creating  more  free  dispensaries  to  diminish 
still  further  the  scant  field  in  which  the  young  physician 
has  to  find  an  existence.  Against  these  abuses  I  protest, 
and  ask  your  cooperation  in  endeavoring  to  stem  the  tide 
which  is  sweeping  us  down  to  a  still  lower  plane  of  pro- 
fessional strife  and  degradation.  What,  then,  is  the 
remedy?  No  reform  can  be  expected  from  the  colleges, 
for  obvious  reasons;  for,  managed  as  they  are,  as  private 
enterprises  for  business  purposes  solely,  they  naturally 
resist  anything  calculated  to  impair  the  very  object  for 
which  they  exist.  As,  in  a  free  country  like  ours,  it  is 
unfortunately  impossible  to  cause  the  "professors"  to  be 
imprisoned  at  hard  labor  and  the  colleges  to  be  burned 
down  —  we  have  to  seek  elsewhere  for  relief.  The  indi- 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      221 

vidual  physician  can  do  nothing,  but,  as  in  unity  lies 
strength,  so  with  us,  if  we  will  only  cooperate,  much  can 
be  accomplished. 

I  am  told  by  good  authority  that,  although  since 
the  foregoing  paper  was  written  there  has  been  a 
decided  improvement  in  the  medical  education  fur- 
nished by  the  best  colleges,  the  abuses  of  the  unscrupu- 
lous medical  schools  are  fully  as  bad  to-day  as  then. 
Also  that  the  overproduction  of  doctors  is  fully  as 
great  at  the  present  time,  for,  while  their  number  is 
diminished  by  death  and  other  causes  at  the  rate  of 
about  twenty-five  hundred  a  year,  the  colleges  are 
turning  out  from  five  thousand  to  six  thousand  new 
doctors  each  year  to  take  their  places. 

In  the  address  quoted  the  writer  referred  to  the 
doctors  who  establish  these  medical  colleges  as  being 
young  and  inexperienced,  and,  in  some  cases,  border- 
ing on  what  might  be  called  "  sharks,"  and  I  wish  to 
say  that  I  happen  to  know  this  is  not  always  the  case. 
At  the  time  that  address  was  delivered  the  Rush  Med- 
ical College,  of  Chicago,  and  the  Chicago  Medical 
College,  probably  were  two  of  the  meanest  and  most 
low-down  examples  of  such  institutions  that  ever 
existed,  and,  as  I  have  already  mentioned  on  page  132, 
they  were  run  by  some  of  the  very  best  physicians  in 
the  city.  When  doctors  of  the  highest  standing  are 
found  conducting  such  "  mills  "  as  these,  what  can  be 
expected  of  the  lower  grade  of  physicians  ? 

It  is  a  question  with  me  whether  the  community 
would  not  be  better  off  if  we  could  go  back  to  the  old- 
time  method  of  making  doctors,  under  which  they  first 
served  a  sort  of  apprenticeship  with  some  good  doctor, 
and  then  went  to  a  medical  school  for  a  few  years. 


222     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

There  has  been  much  talk  in  recent  years  about  the 
fraud  and  swindling  resorted  to  by  some  of  our  high- 
grade  doctors,  which  also  may  be  said  of  some  lawyers. 
They  seem  to  act  on  the  theory  that  the  charge  for 
their  services  ought  to  be  based  on  the  wealth  of  their 
patient,  or  client ;  but  how  they  justify  the  charging  of 
a  fifty-thousand-dollar  fee  in  a  five-hundred-dollar 
case  is  incomprehensible  to  me,  and  I  claim  it  is  noth- 
ing less  than  highway  robbery. 

If  a  bricklayer  who  was  willing  to  work  for  a  poor 
man  for  $4  a  day  should  demand  $100  a  day  when 
working  for  a  rich  doctor  or  lawyer,  I  am  sure  they 
would  at  once  class  him  among  the  highway  robbers. 

As  showing  to  what  ridiculous  extremes  this  coun- 
try has  gone  in  the  matter  of  medical  colleges,  I  quote 
the  following  from  a  recent  publication: 

A  list  of  medical  colleges  of  all  foreign  countries  shows 
a  total  of  165  such  colleges  outside  the  United  States, 
while  this  country  alone  has  144.  In  other  words,  of  the 
309  medical  colleges  in  all  countries,  the  United  States 
has  144,  or  forty-seven  per  cent,  while  the  thirty  other 
nations  altogether  have  only  165,  or  fifty-three  per  cent. 

All  European  medical  schools  are  medical  faculties  of 
universities  or  are  under  the  direct  control  of  universities, 
and  there  are  no  proprietary  schools  such  as  predominate 
in  this  country. 

One  of  the  most  conclusive  evidences  of  the  over- 
production of  doctors,  I  think,  is  the  fact,  as  reported 
to  me  by  a  prominent  physician,  that  the  yearly  income 
of  all  doctors  in  this  country  averages  about  $600. 

The  overcrowding  of  the  medical  profession  also 
leads  to  an  immense  amount  of  abuse  in  connection 
with  the  hospitals,  but  I  shall  not  undertake  here  to 
go  into  the  details  of  this  feature  of  the  subject,  as  it 
already  is  well  understood,  and  would  make  this  arti- 
cle too  long. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION  — IS  IT  IMPOR- 
TANT IN  THE  PRODUCTION  OF 
SCIENTIFIC  OR  PHENOMENAL  DIS- 
COVERIES OR  INVENTIONS? 

Having  disposed  of  the  subject  of  classical,  busi- 
ness, technical  and  medical  education,  to  my  entire 
satisfaction,  I  will  now  see  what  I  can  do  to  knock 
out  scientific  education,  and,  in  a  subsequent  chapter, 
will  knock  out  agricultural  education. 

In  my  papers  on  technical  education  there  has  been 
more  or  less  mention  of  scientific  matters  in  their 
direct  relation  to  manufacturing,  construction,  etc., 
and  where  discoveries  and  inventions  of  a  scientific 
character  grew  mainly  out  of  a  necessity  for  them. 

For  the  sake  of  convenience  I  classify  discoveries 
and  inventions  as  follows :  Scientific  or  phenomenal, 
ordinary  or  adapted.  Ordinary  inventions  and  adapted 
inventions  I  have  considered  in  previous  articles;  and 
before  leaving  this  discussion  on  educational  matters, 
I  wish  to  glance  briefly  at  the  first  class. 

My  reason  for  doing  this  is  the  existence  of  a 
belief  among  nonthinking  persons  that  most  of  what 
may  be  called  our  phenomenal  inventions  —  the  inven- 
tions closely  allied  to  scientific  discoveries  —  have 
come  wholly  from  scientists,  and  that  this  belief  is 
coupled  with  the  conviction  that  none  but  a  scientific 
person  could  make  one  of  these  inventions,  The  some- 


224      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

what  popular  idea  is  that,  to  get  scientific  results, 
schools  of  science  are  an  absolute  necessity,  and  the 
object  of  this  paper  is  to  ascertain  to  what  extent  that 
is  true. 

UNJUST  TOWARD  PRACTICAL  MEN. 

I  maintain  that  this  is  a  mistaken  idea,  which  is 
responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  confusion  and  injustice 
toward  the  practical  man  and  for  a  wholly  unwar- 
ranted conception  of  the  importance  of  the  scientific 
man. 

So  far  as  benefiting  humanity  is  concerned,  only 
applied  science,  or  knowledge,  is  of  value.  No  matter 
how  much  science  the  schools  may  teach,  or  how  much 
science  is  developed  through  their  teaching,  its  value 
must  be  measured  by  the  amount  of  it  that  is  used  for 
the  good  of  humanity. 

The  history  of  the  world  gives  abundant  proof 
that  science  in  itself  has  been  of  little  use  save  where 
it  has  made  a  close  alliance  with  practice.  It  is  the 
practical  man  —  and  in  the  majority  of  instances  the 
man  without  scientific  education  —  who  is  to  be  cred- 
ited with  the  great  bulk  of  our  inventions,  not  only 
the  adapted  and  ordinary,  but  also  the  phenomenal. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  "  necessity  is  the  mother 
of  invention."  The  need  for  something  never  yet  in 
use  has  brought  forward  the  great  majority  of 
inventors.  But  there  are  other  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries which  did  not  grow  out  of  what  might  be 
called  an  apparent  necessity. 

The  chemical  composition  of  water  was  such  a  dis- 
covery, the  telephone  and  the  talking  machine  were 
such  inventions. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      225 

A  PUZZLING  QUESTION. 

The  puzzling  question  is  how  to  account  for  a  man 
making  such  a  scientific  discovery  or  such  phenomenal 
inventions?  Does  a  scientific  education  lead  a  man  to 
think  that  something  which  appears  to  be  impossible 
or  improbable  can  be  done?  If  not,  what  is  there  in 
a  man's  mind  that  leads  him  to  do  a  thing  of  this 
nature  ? 

How  did  Franklin  conceive  the  idea  that  he  could 
draw  electricity  from  the  clouds?  Why  did  Morse 
believe  he  could  send  this  same  force  along  a  wire  as 
a  means  of  communication?  What  gave  Gray  and 
Bell  the  idea  that  the  human  voice,  capable  of  being 
heard  ordinarily  only  a  few  hundred  feet,  could  be 
sent  by  wire  for  hundreds  of  miles  ?  What  gave  Edi- 
son his  conception  of  the  incandescent  lamp  and  of  the 
talking  machine,  and  Marconi  the  idea  of  wireless 
telegraphy?  Why  did  Field  fancy  he  could  send  speech 
under  the  ocean  ?  What  suggested  to  Watt  that  water 
is  a  compound  and  not  an  elementary  substance? 
What  led  Welte  and  Bockisch  to  make  the  wonderful 
discovery  that  a  mechanical  piano-player  could  be 
made  that  would  reproduce  the  exact  characteristics 
of  the  pianist? 

These  are  but  a  few  examples  out  of  many  that 
might  be  mentioned  to  show  that  the  practical  man 
should  be  given  credit  for  at  least  a  very  large  per- 
centage of  all  the  discoveries  and  inventions  of  a 
scientific  nature  that  have  increased  the  comfort,  hap- 
piness and  profit  of  mankind. 

Here  are  a  number  of  the  most  phenomenal  discov- 
eries and  inventions  the  world  has  seen,  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  any  of  these  men  stand  preeminent  as 
scientists. 

15 


226      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

Those  who  did  these  extraordinary  things  are  in  a 
class  far  above  the  ordinary  inventors,  men  in  practical 
lines  of  work.  Yet  they  are  inventors,  not  scientists, 
practical  men  rather  than  theorists.  It  is  their  prac- 
tical work  that  has  benefited  the  world. 

It  being  a  fact,  as  already  stated,  that  science  has 
but  little  to  show  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  welfare 
of  mankind,  why  do  so  many  persons  doff  their  hats 
in  homage  to  the  scientific  schools  and  the  scientists 
and  overlook  the  substantial  claims  of  those  who  have 
applied  their  inventions  and  knowledge  to  useful  and 
practical  ends? 

It  is  simply  another  case  of  the  unthinking  being 
dazzled  by  the  glamour  of  the  colleges.  To  them  the 
word  "  scientist "  has  a  subtle  and  mysterious  meaning, 
and  they  can  not  understand  how  any  one  not  scientif- 
ically trained  in  some  school  could  possibly  get  on 
speaking  terms  with  the  hidden  things  of  nature. 

WHAT  HISTORY  SHOWS. 

A  cure  for  this  unreasonable  and  false  attitude 
would  be  a  short  study  of  the  world's  progress.  For 
such  a  study  would  show  that  most  of  the  basic  things 
of  modern  science  were  discovered  or  theoretically 
worked  out  long  before  our  schools  of  science  and 
scientific  courses  came  into  being;  that  practical  men 
—  often  unschooled  men  —  laid,  broad  and  firm,  the 
foundation  for  all  that  these  schools  can  teach  to-day. 

In  this  and  all  the  preceding  articles  I  have  written 
on  education  my  chief  purpose  has  been  to  show  the 
falsity  of  the  claims  for  all  kinds  of  higher  schooling 
and  to  do  justice  and  give  credit  where  it  belongs. 

I  believe  I  have  been  conservative  in  asserting  that 
at  least  ninety  per  cent  of  all  that  goes  to  make  life 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      227 

worth  living  we  owe  to  the  mechanic  and  the  inventor ; 
and  I  doubt  if  the  higher  educators  can  show  that  they 
have  much  claim  even  to  a  part  of  the  remaining  ten 
per  cent. 

THE  RESEARCH  FAD. 

I  can  not  leave  this  subject  of  education  without 
taking  some  notice  of  the  "  research  "  fad.  While  this 
is  not  strictly  speaking  education,  it  is  closely  allied  to 
educational  institutions,  and  I  consider  it  the  acme  of 
all  the  great  hobbies  of  the  higher  educators.  The 
great  idea  in  this  whole  matter  seems  to  be  to  have 
some  research  work  connected  with  these  institutions, 
in  order  to  bolster  them  up  and  give  some  excuse  for 
their  existence. 

Technical  education  has  a  certain  fascination;  sci- 
entific education  draws  and  dazzles  even  more 
strongly;  but  neither  of  these  can  be  compared  with 
the  great  and  wonderful  things  promised  under  the 
glittering  title  of  "  Research." 

There  is  no  end  to  the  subjects  which  the  research 
dreamer  goes  into  to  satisfy  his  ambition;  in  fact,  I 
can  not  conceive  of  a  greater  array  of  things  purely 
idiotic.  Of  course,  I  leave  out  of  the  list  such  useful 
work  as  medical  research,  work  that  promises  some- 
thing worth  while  to  human  kind.  What  I  have  in 
mind  is  the  man  who  has  the  astronomy  microbe ;  the 
one  afflicted  with  the  meteorite  bacillus ;  the  victim  of 
the  north-pole  mania;  the  fellow  with  the  flying- 
machine  bug;  and  the  person  attacked  by  the 
archeological  germ. 

These  enthusiasts  are  willing  and  ready  to  spend 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  other  people's  money  on 
these  and  similar  senseless  things,  when  the  chances  are 


228      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

not  one  in  a  thousand  of  anything  being  discovered  of 
value  to  mankind,  and  the  probability  is  that  this  one 
discovery  will  cost  a  thousand  times  more  than  it  is 
worth. 

Their  search  usually  is  like  looking  for  a  needle 
in  a  haystack;  and  too  often  their  success  is  akin  to 
that  of  the  mountain  which,  after  much  labor,  brought 
forth  a  mouse. 

One  specimen  of  this  research  fad  and  its  lack  of 
value  is  found  in  the  awarding,  in  1907,  of  the  Nobel 
prize  for  Physics  (amounting,  I  believe,  to  $40,000) 
to  Prof.  Albert  A.  Michelson  "  for  his  optical  instru- 
ments of  precision  and  for  his  investigations  made 
therewith  in  spectroscopy  and  in  the  science  of  meas- 
urement." 

I  have  not  heard  of  any  results  coming  from  this 
discovery  and  can  not  imagine  how  anything  could 
be  gained  from  it,  as  the  whole  idea  as  to  its  value  was 
based  on  a  false  theory.  While  it  may  have  been  a 
nice  piece  of  scientific  discovery,  I  think  it  is  a  strik- 
ing example  of  the  scientific  man  drawing  upon  his 
imagination  as  to  the  value  of  his  work. 

This  case  also  proves  that  the  men  having  charge 
of  the  making  of  these  awards,  who  were  selected  by 
the  Swedish  Academy  of  Science,  are  persons  whose 
judgment  in  such  matters  can  not  be  depended  upon, 
for  had  they  possessed  any  common  sense  they  never 
would  have  granted  an  award  for  such  a  discovery. 
This  is  another  blunder  of  the  highly  schooled  class 
of  men, 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD  COMPANY 
AND  TECHNICAL-SCHOOL  GRADUATES. 

One  of  the  worst  sinners  in  encouraging  technical 
schools  is  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  While  it  is  not 
as  great  a  sinner  as  the  General  Electric  Company  or 
the  Westinghouse  Company,  still  it  is  bad  and  deserves 
to  be  mentioned  here. 

This  railroad  company  frequently  is  quoted  as  hav- 
ing such  a  wonderful  system  for  making  its  own  help 
out  of  college  men  and  is  such  a  great  believer  that  this 
system  has  much  to  do  with  promoting  the  loyalty  and 
good  will  of  its  men  and  the  success  of  its  road,  and  it 
also  has  so  much  to  say  about  its  wonderful  organiza- 
tion and  its  superiority  over  any  other  road  in  the 
country,  that  it  may  be  of  interest  to  the  public  to  see 
what  all  of  this  talk  amounts  to. 

The  stockholders  of  this  road  have  a  perfect  right 
to  run  the  road  with  technically  educated  men,  even  if 
no  one  in  the  United  States  agrees  with  them,  and  it  is 
no  one  else's  business.  And  if  they  choose  to  run  an 
asylum  for  half-baked  engineers  —  as  I  have  referred 
to  in  Chapter  III  —  that  also  is  their  own  affair.  But 
when  the  officials  of  the  road  go  out  into  the  lecture 
field  and  take  most  decided  grounds  that  their  road  is 
run  better  than  other  roads,  and  that  this  is  due  to 
their  employing  technically  educated  men,  and  that  this 
class  of  men  are  in  demand  generally  by  manu- 


230      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

facturers,  the  management  of  this  road  becomes  a 
matter  of  public  interest,  and  it  is  right  and  proper  to 
raise  the  question  as  to  whether  their  judgment  is 
infallible  and  every  one  else  is  wrong. 

ONLY  ONE  OPINION  IN  FIFTY. 

It  is  strange  that  men  should  be  so  sure  of  their 
position  on  this  subject  when  they  have  no  evidence  to 
support  it,  and  especially  when  their  opinion  is  only 
that  of  one  in  twenty  or  one  in  fifty  among  men  in  the 
same  line  of  business.  They  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to 
see  that,  while  the  Pennsylvania  Road,  as  they  claim 
(without  warrant  as  I  shall  show  further  on),  has 
been  run  largely  by  technically  trained  men,  other 
roads  have  been  run  just  as  well  without  such  men. 

Some  time  ago  an  article  by  Mr.  Samuel  Church,  a 
secretary  of  this  road,  appeared  in  The  Yale  News,  in 
which  he  said : 

"There  is  no  longer  any  question  in  regard  to  the 
superior  availability  of  a  college-bred  man  for  promo- 
tion to  the  higher  positions  in  industrial  establish- 
ments." 

He  goes  on  in  a  gushing  way  about  the  great 
importance  of  technical  and  higher  education  generally, 
and,  as  another  example  of  his  style,  I  quote  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"  The  engineer  who  has  been  trained  to  study  the 
statues  of  ancient  Greece  will  build  a  better  bridge  than 
the  man  who  can  not  describe  the  Parthenon  frieze." 

Perhaps  it  was  a  man  of  this  class  who  planned  the 
Blackwell's  Island  bridge  or  the  ill-fated  bridge  over 
the  St.  Lawrence  River,  near  Quebec? 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     231 

A  FEW  POINTED  QUESTIONS. 

In  order  to  ascertain  whether  Mr.  Church  had  the 
experience  to  justify  his  claims,  I  wrote  to  him  and 
asked  him  the  following  questions : 

I.  How  many  years  have  you  had  experience  with 
men  who  have  had  a  technical-school  education? 

2..  How  many  technical-school  educated  men  have 
been  under  your  immediate  charge  and  had  close  atten- 
tion from  you? 

3.  (a)  Have  you   ever  given  close  attention  to   the 
brighter  class  of  young  men  with  your  company  who  did 
not  go  to  college?      (b)  If  so,  did  you  notice  in  them 
any  shortcomings  that  would  appear  to  give  the  college- 
educated  man  an  advantage  over  them? 

In  order  to  get  at  the  real  merits  of  this  question  it 
seems  to  me  it  is  necessary  to  imagine  a  case  something 
like  this: 

Take  two  boys  of  equal  natural  ability  and  just  through 
with  grammar  school.  Let  one  go  on  through  four  years 
of  high  school  and  then  four  years  at  college.  Let  the 
other  put  in  these  eight  years  learning  the  railroad  busi- 
ness, dividing  the  time  up  as  follows :  3  years  in  machine- 
shop,  2  months  in  car-building  shop,  2  in  foundry,  2  in 
pattern-shop,  2  in  blacksmith-shop,  3  in  firing  on  loco- 
motive, 2  with  track  repairer,  9  surveying,  laying  tracks, 
grading,  etc.,  3  in  testing  department,  6  in  purchasing 
department,  3  at  smaller  country  stations,  3  at  a  large 
freight  station,  3  in  passenger  department,  6  in  auditing 
and  bookkeeping  departments,  2  in  train  despatcher's 
office,  12  in  division  superintendent's  office. 

While  in  the  department  last  mentioned  (the  division 
superintendent's  office)  he  would  look  into  all  kinds  of 
accidents,  landslides,  washouts,  snow  blockades,  wrecks, 
etc.,  in  other  words,  get  a  clear  insight  into  all  the  diffi- 
culties which  a  division  superintendent  has  to  contend 
with. 

4.  Do  you  claim  that  the  boy  who   spent  the  eight 
years  in  high  school  and  college  will  be  more  useful  and 


232     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

valuable  to  you  in  your  railroad  business  than  the  one 
who  follows  the  other  course  I  have  mentioned? 

Mr.  Church's  answer  is  too  long  to  publish  in  full, 
and  in  any  event  almost  all  of  it  is  not  pertinent  to  the 
matter  in  question,  for,  while  he  has  been  with  the 
Pennsylvania  Road  for  some  thirty- four  years,  his  time 
was  largely  spent  in  the  office  of  superintendent  of 
transportation  and  as  assistant  secretary  and  in  other 
office  positions. 

RAILROAD  MEN  QUICKLY  MADE. 

Therefore,  he  might  have  answered  my  questions 
by  stating  that  he  had  had  no  experience  with  either 
technically  educated  or  practical  men  in  the  lines  where 
these  men  are  used,  and  consequently  knew  nothing 
about  the  subject,  which,  of  course,  would  have  ended 
the  discussion. 

Another  example  of  his  ignorance  on  this  subject  is 
shown  in  the  following  remark  in  his  article  already 
referred  to :  "  On  the  railroad  we  want  a  man  in  the 
shops  who  can  not  only  take  an  engine  to  pieces,  that 
being  his  analytical  power,  but  who  can  also  construct 
it  when  its  parts  are  first  assembled." 

Now  let  us  see  what  qualifications  the  college  man 
has  for  this  job. 

In  the  Pennsylvania  Company's  system  for  making 
important  help  for  its  motive  power  department,  it 
takes  college  men  and  puts  them  through  the  following 
apprenticeship  course  for  four  years : 

Erecting-shop,  6  months ;  machine-shop,  6 ;  vise- 
shop,  3;  air-brake  shop,  2,\  blacksmith-shop,  2;  iron- 
foundry,  2;  boiler-shop,  2;  car-shop,  6;  roundhouse, 
4 ;  firing  locomotive  on  road,  3 ;  shop  clerk's  office,  2 ; 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      233 

motive  power  clerk's  office,  2]   drawing-room,  3;   test 
department,  5. 

SMALL  AMOUNT  OF  EXPERIENCE. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  apprentices  spend 
about  fifteen  months  in  the  machine  line,  and  this  is  all 
the  experience  these  college  men  have  to  qualify  them 
to  put  a  locomotive  together. 

It  is  a  most  surprising  thing  that  Mr.  Church  can 
not  see  the  stupidity  and  absurdity  of  his  claim  that 
the  college  man  with  this  fifteen  months'  experience  is 
superior  to  the  practical  man  who  has  had  many  years' 
experience.  Also,  that  thousands  of  engines  have  been 
put  together  by  the  practical  man  for  every  one  that 
has  been  put  together  by  one  of  these  college  men  who 
is  trained  accordingly  to  the  company's  method. 

If  the  facts  were  known,  I  do  not  doubt  we  would 
find  that  not  one  of  the  Pennsylvania's  apprentices  ever 
had  or  could  put  a  locomotive  together. 

These  college  men  do  not  possess  one-tenth  the 
mechanical  skill  and  knowledge  required  to  perform 
this  work,  and  yet  Mr.  Church  undertakes  to  humbug 
the  public  into  believing  that  these  men  are  superior 
for  this  job. 

He  also  says  practically  the  same  thing  about  work 
on  air  brakes  and  valves,  and  his  position  in  this  regard 
is  just  as  absurd  as  on  the  subject  of  the  locomotive. 
As  before  stated,  Mr.  Church  has  never  had  any- 
thing to  do  in  the  practical  line,  being  simply  an  office 
man ;  and  yet  he  has  the  impertinence  practically  to  go 
out  lecturing  and  advising  as  to  the  advantages  of  a 
technical  education.  What  the  Pennsylvania  Road 
should  do  is  to  put  a  collar  around  his  neck  and  chain 
him  to  a  desk. 


234     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

INCOMPETENT  ADVISORS. 

This  is  simply  another  specimen  of  the  people  who 
do  not  know  anything  about  the  subject  going  before 
the  public  and  advising  young  men  to  spend  five  or  ten 
thousand  dollars  and  eight  of  the  best  years  of  their 
lives  to  get  an  education,  when  they  have  not  a  particle 
of  evidence  on  which  to  base  their  judgment. 

In  an  article  that  appeared  in  one  of  the  magazines 
a  statement  .was  made  that  the  young  man,  upon  com- 
pleting this  four  years'  apprenticeship  course  of  the 
Pennsylvania,  "  is  at  once  assigned  to  important  work." 

In  order  to  get  further  information  on  this  subject, 
I  wrote  to  the  Pennsylvania  Road  and  asked  it  to  give 
me  a  list  of  the  important  positions  that  it  considers 
these  young  men  capable  of  filling  upon  completing  this 
four-years'  course.  In  response  I  received  a  long  letter 
from  the  fifth  vice-president,  Mr.  W.  W.  Atterbury. 

From  Mr.  Atterbury's  letter  it  appears  that  these 
young  men,  upon  completing  their  apprenticeship 
course,  are  generally  appointed  first  as  inspectors  and 
assigned  to  some  shop  or  mechanical  road  official. 

Next,  they  are  appointed  to  the  position  of  assistant 
roundhouse  foreman  or  assistant  master  mechanic. 

Next,  general  foreman  of  a  small  shop. 

Next,  to  the  position  of  master  mechanic  of  one  of 
the  smaller  shops,  gradually  being  shifted  to  the  more 
important  shops. 

Next,  to  the  position  of  superintendent  of  motive 
power. 

INSUFFICIENT  TRAINING. 

Now  let  us  see  how  this  training  has  qualified  these 
young  men  for  these  various  positions.  As  to  the  first 
appointment,  that  of  inspector,  they  simply  have  had 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      235 

four  years  in  the  shop  as  already  referred  to,  and  as 
only  a  small  part  of  the  great  variety  of  material 
required  by  the  company  is  used  in  these  departments, 
they  would  have  but  little  opportunity  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  these  materials  and  would  know  abso- 
lutely nothing  about  the  enormous  variety  of  materials 
that  this  road  is  continually  buying.  To  acquire  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  all  this  work  would  be  a  long 
and  laborious  undertaking,  requiring  years. 

With  regard  to  the  position  of  assistant  round- 
house foreman,  the  young  men's  experience  has  given 
them  but  the  merest  trifling  qualifications  for  this  work. 
The  chief  thing  required  of  a  roundhouse  foreman  is 
to  know  how  to  make  the  small  repairs  that  can  be 
attended  to  there  and  also  to  know  when  an  engine  is 
fit  to  go  out  on  the  road,  or  when  it  is  so  badly  out  of 
order  that  it  ought  to  be  sent  to  the  repair-shop  for 
thorough  overhauling. 

It,  of  course,  is  a  serious  mistake  to  send  a  loco- 
motive to  the  repair-shop  for  this  purpose,  as  I  should 
guess  it  would  probably  cost  a  thousand  dollars  to 
overhaul  it.  It  will  be  seen  that  if  an  engine  is  sent 
twice  to  be  overhauled,  when  once  would  answer  the 
purpose  fairly  well,  this  would  mean  a  thousand  dollars 
thrown  away. 

REQUIREMENTS  FOR  ROUNDHOUSE. 

To  determine  just  when  this  trip  to  the  repair-shop 
should  be  made  requires  a  large  amount  of  experience 
as  an  engineer,  and  also  as  a  machinist. 

Men  in  this  position  also  should  be  able  to  judge  of 
the  efficiency  and  competency  of  the  running  engineers 
from  the  condition  in  which  they  bring  in  their  engines 
from  their  various  runs.  To  do  this  accurately  and 


236     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

fairly  requires  an  amount  of  experience  in  actual 
operation  that  never  could  be  secured  in  three  months 
of  firing  on  a  locomotive. 

The  nearest  these  young  men  come  to  getting  any 
education  along  this  line  is  during  fifteen  months  they 
spend  in  machine  work  and  the  three  months  they  have 
in  firing  on  a  locomotive,  which  is  but  a  small  amount 
of  experience. 

I  venture  the  opinion  that  there  is  not  one  man 
doing  repairs  under  such  a  foreman  who  doesn't  know 
ten  times  as  much  about  the  work  as  his  boss.  This 
is  reversing  the  order  on  which  every  one  else  does 
business;  that  is,  the  foreman  usually  is  selected  be- 
cause he  knows  more  than  the  men  under  him,  and 
because  of  his  common  sense  and  ability  to  handle  men. 

With  regard  to  the  other  positions  that  he  may 
be  given  afterward,  such  as  assistant  master  mechanic, 
general  foreman  of  a  small  shop,  master  mechanic  of 
various  shops,  and  superintendent  of  motive  power, 
the  young  man  has  simply  had  about  fifteen  months  in 
the  machine-shop  directly  to  qualify  him  for  these 
positions  and  in  addition  has  had  a  little  more  than 
two  years  in  clerical  work  and  various  other  lines 
that  have  a  slight  bearing  on  the  subject,  making  four 
years  altogether. 

QUALIFICATIONS  NOT  COMMON. 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is,  that  the  young  man  has 
not  the  necessary  amount  of  experience,  and  without 
this  he  is  worth  nothing  in  these  lines.  Then,  in  addi- 
tion to  experience,  he  should  have  a  large  amount  of 
good  common  sense  and  also  know  how  to  handle  men, 
qualifications  that  are  rare. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      237 

There  is  not  one  in  a  hundred  among  these  men 
who  has  the  tact  and  other  qualifications  necessary  to 
fit  him  for  this  business,  even  if  he  had  the  mechanical 
skill. 

I  do  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  denounce  the  whole 
scheme  of  the  Pennsylvania  Road  as  utterly  stupid  and 
unbusinesslike.  If  a  person  manufacturing  something 
to  sell  on  the  market  conducted  his  business  in  that 
way  he  would  find  himself  bankrupt  in  no  time. 

Mr.  Atterbury  specifies  a  number  of  positions  in 
which  these  technical-college  men  are  used  and,  of 
course,  for  these  different  positions  much  different 
kind  of  training  is  required.  For  some  of  these  posi- 
tions a  thorough  training  in  the  repair-shop  would  be 
all  that  is  necessary. 

THE  ONLY  ONE  TO  JUDGE. 

But  when  it  comes  to  the  larger  places,  contain- 
ing blacksmith-shops,  pattern-shops,  foundries,  boiler- 
shops,  etc.,  the  man  to  take  charge  of  such  a  place 
must  have  some  training  in  all  the  different  branches 
there.  A  person  who  has  not  obtained,  by  experience, 
the  knowledge  of  how  a  thing  is  made  can  not  be  in  a 
position  to  judge  whether  the  work  has  been  done  to 
advantage  or  not. 

The  only  way  to  fit  young  men  for  such  positions 
is  that  which  I  have  already  laid  down  in  one  of  my 
previous  articles,  and,  as  it  applies  equally  well  to  the 
railroad  business,  I  quote  from  it  as  follows : 

I  maintain  that  what  is  necessary  for  men  to  have  to 
be  successful  in  manufacturing  is  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  art,  of  the  kind  of  machines  best  adapted  to  cer- 
tain purposes,  and  of  how  much  the  machines  are  capable 
of  producing.  These  prime  essentials  are  not  found  in  a 


238     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

course  of  technology,  but  in  long  experience  and  close 
observation  in  the  business,  and  in  a  thoroughly  up-to- 
date  factory. 

The  man  to  be  at  the  head  of  the  motive  power 
department  has  to  be  made  in  the  same  way  that  I  have 
mentioned  in  my  article  regarding  the  General  Electric 
Company.  That  is,  in  preparing  material  for  this 
position,  selection  should  be  made  from  the  brighter 
class  of  boys  who  have  shown  decided  merit  and  who 
have  been  brought  in  to  learn  the  machine  business. 

MAKING  THE  BEST  MEN. 

Young  men  thus  chosen  should  spend  four  years  in 
the  locomotive  repair-shop  and  machine-shop,  then  be 
given  one  year  in  the  foundry,  a  year  in  the  blacksmith- 
shop,  a  year  in  the  boiler-shop,  and  a  year  running  a 
locomotive.  This  would  make  eight  years  in  all,  or  the 
same  length  of  time  that  the  college  boy  spends  in  high 
school  and  college. 

After  such  a  practical  course  the  company  would 
have  material  from  which  to  select  a  man  of  great 
ability,  who  not  only  would  have  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  everything  connected  with  the  department,  but 
would  have  been  selected  because  he  had  brains. 
Besides,  while  learning  the  business  this  man  would 
have  been  earning  something. 

On  the  other  hand,  admitting  that  the  college  man 
in  time  could  acquire  the  mechanical  knowledge  and 
experience  above  mentioned  (which,  of  course,  he 
never  would),  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  would  have 
the  brains  necessary  to  fill  this  position. 

The  great  thing  in  the  management  of  a  railroad, 
or  any  other  important  business,  is  to  find  for  a  man- 
ager of  each  division  of  the  road  a  man  who  not  only 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      239 

knows  every  feature  of  the  business  in  his  department, 
but  who  has  coupled  with  this  thoroughly  good  com- 
mon sense;  and  then  depend  upon  him  to  look  after 
the  education  and  training  of  the  men  in  his  depart- 
ment. 

MAKING  GOOD  HELP. 

The  success  of  any  large  and  complicated  business 
depends  almost  wholly  upon  it  making  its  own  help, 
and  the  men  at  the  head  of  each  important  part  of  the 
business  should  be  continually  looking  out  to  have  the 
right  kind  of  help  coming  along,  so  that  the  company 
never  will  be  embarrassed  for  the  want  of  good  men. 

This  is  the  most  important  work  any  superintend- 
ent of  any  division  of  a  railroad  can  be  concerned  in, 
and  I  would  not  consider  any  man  a  success  in  any 
position  who  does  not  surround  himself  with  thor- 
oughly good  help,  so  that  his  division  may  run  equally 
well  if  anything  should  happen  to  him. 

A  railroad  company  can  not  spend  money  in  any 
better  way  than  by  taking  the  right  kind  of  men  and 
shifting  them  around,  as  I  have  outlined,  where  they 
can  get  experience  that  will  enable  them  to  fill  higher 
positions. 

In  regard  to  the  other  two  divisions  which  Mr. 
Atterbury  mentions  —  that  is,  maintenance  of  way  and 
conducting  transportation  —  I  do  not  think  it  is  neces- 
sary to  pursue  this  matter  further,  as  what  I  have  said 
about  the  motive  power  division  applies  equally  well 
to  them. 

Something  has  been  said  in  some  of  the  newspaper 
articles  with  regard  to  the  loyalty  of  the  employees  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  growing  out  of  the  fact  that 
this  company  makes  its  own  help. 


240      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

How  TO  ENCOURAGE  LOYALTY. 

It  seems  to  me  there  is  a  chance  for  a  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  whether  the  company's  method  can  be 
called  a  complete  arrangement  for  making  its  help. 
I  can  not  see  that  bringing  a  college  man  into  a  job 
where  there  are  a  dozen  men  around  him  in  the  shop 
who  can  fill  the  place  better  than  he,  is  going  to  pro- 
mote loyalty.  I  should  think  that  just  the  contrary 
would  be  the  case  and  that  not  only  would  this  not 
promote  loyalty,  but  that  it  would  breed  contempt 
among  the  men  toward  the  management,  for  the  men 
can  see  these  blunders. 

Nor  is  this  what  people  generally  understand  as 
making  your  own  help.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Pennsylvania  people  appear  to  think  that  the  colleges 
are  making  the  help  for  them  to  a  considerable  extent. 
In  other  words,  there  are  two  ways  of  making  your 
own  help  —  one  being  to  take  men  and  the  other  to 
take  boys. 

A  decided  disadvantage  that  a  college-educated 
man  has  in  going  into  the  shops,  as  one  writer  has 
said :  "  The  man  who  has  gone  through  the  shop  from 
the  bottom  up  knows  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the 
toilers  therein.  Their  inner  lives  are  to  him  like  an 
open  book ;  but  the  man  who  comes  in  from  the  top 
mixes  with  an  uncongenial  element  which  is  never 
properly  understood.  This  want  of  fellow-feeling  is  a 
source  of  weakness  in  the  management  of  men,  and  is 
as  hurtful  to  success  in  business  as  is  the  absence  of 
human  sympathy.  It  does  not  pay  to  have  a  man  in 
charge  who  regards  workmen  as  mere  machines,  and 
the  man  who  has  shared  their  difficulties,  their 
triumphs  and  their  pleasures  is  likely  to  manage  them 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      241 

better  than  the  man  who  has  not  been  in  real  touch 
with  them." 

WHAT  A  FOREMAN  MUST  BE. 

In  many  kinds  of  work  which  workmen  are  called 
upon  to  do  there  is  an  opportunity  to  perform  only  half 
a  day's  work  without  the  employer  being  aware  of  it, 
and  this  certainly  is  apt  to  be  the  case  where  the  fore- 
man is  not  in  sympathy  with  his  men.  In  other  words, 
to  get  the  best  results  out  of  the  men  they  must  be 
under  a  man  who  is  in  sympathy  with  them  and  treats 
them  fairly  and  in  a  manly  way. 

The  railroad  is  particularly  subject  to  the  abuse  I 
mention,  because  there  is  hardly  a  department  in  which 
the  foreman  or  superintendent  can  determine  what  a 
day's  work  is  or  insist  on  getting  it.  They  must 
depend  upon  the  good-will,  honesty  and  faithfulness  of 
their  workmen. 

To  maintain  loyalty  in  the  railroad  business,  as  in 
any  other  business,  it  is  necessary  for  those  occupying 
important  positions  to  know  that  the  person  at  the 
head  of  the  organization  has  a  systematic  method  of 
arriving  at  the  merit  of  every  important  employee, 
that  he  has  a  record  of  them  in  his  office,  and  that  they 
will  not  be  overlooked  when  the  time  comes  for  mak- 
ing promotions.  Also,  that  neither  a  college  man,  nor 
any  other  man,  is  going  to  be  brought  in  to  take  away 
their  natural  rights. 

No  SCIENCE  IN  RAILROADING. 

As  I  understand  it,  the  Pennsylvania  Company  does 
not  use  college  men  in.  its  traffic  or  accounting  depart- 
ments, which  would  appear  to  me  to  be  inconsistent. 
If  the  college  man  has  any  merit  at  all,  he  naturally 

16 


242      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

would  be  of  the  greatest  value  in  what  might  be  called 
the  strictly  business  part  of  the  railroad.  It  seems  to 
me  that  here  is  where  he  would  fit  in  best. 

These  people  appear  to  go  on  the  theory  that  there 
is  some  science  connected  with  the  motive  power 
department  of  their  road,  and  for  this  reason  the  col- 
lege man  has  an  advantage  for  this  work.  This  is 
perfectly  ridiculous,  as  there  is  not  a  particle  of  science 
about  it.  It  is  nothing  but  straightforward  mechanical 
work. 

I  noticed  some  time  ago,  also  in  The  Yale  News, 
an  article  by  Mr.  Thomas  DeWitt  Cuyler,  a  director 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Company,  in  which  he  seems  to 
overflow  with  enthusiasm  on  the  importance  of  college 
education  for  railroad  men. 

In  order  to  ascertain  what  experience  he  has  had  to 
qualify  him  for  the  grounds  taken  by  him  in  these 
extravagant  assertions,  I  wrote  him  a  letter  similar  to 
the  one  sent  to  Mr.  Church,  but  thus  far  he  has  not 
seen  fit  to  reply,  although  I  asked  one  of  the  vice- 
presidents  of  this  road  to  urge  him  to  do  so.  I  do  not 
doubt,  however,  that  if  he  had  answered  my  letter  he 
would  have  made  just  as  poor  a  showing  as  Mr. 
Church. 

FACTS  AGAINST  FANCY. 

To  cap  the  climax,  an  article  in  one  of  the  news- 
papers recently  stated  that  out  of  160  of  the  principal 
officials  of  the  Pennsylvania  Road,  150  started  at  the 
bottom  of  the  ladder,  coming  from  such  positions  as 
rodmen,  telegraph  operators,  station  agents,  clerks, 
etc. 

Mr.  John  Edgar  Thomson,  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Scott 
and  Mr.  George  B.  Roberts  have  been  presidents  of 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     243 

the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  serving  in  that 
capacity  respectively  for  22,  6,  and  17  years.  Mr. 
Thomson  and  Mr.  Scott  had  no  technical-school  educa- 
tion ;  Mr.  Roberts,  who  was  president  for  seventeen 
years,  was  a  technical-school  graduate. 

Thus  for  twenty-eight  out  of  the  forty-five  years 
that  these  men  controlled  the  affairs  of  this  company, 
the  colleges  can  claim  no  credit  for  any  part  of  their 
success. 

And  I  have  it  on  the  highest  authority  that  the  two 
first  named  were  looked  upon  as  men  of  very  great 
ability,  playing  a  large  part,  in  different  ways,  in  the 
development  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  system. 

It  would  seem  from  the  foregoing  that  the  Penn- 
sylvania lines  have  been  managed  by  about  ten  per  cent 
of  technical-school  men,  and  ninety  per  cent  of  non- 
technical-school men  who  grew  up  in  the  business. 
Doubtless,  this  accounts  for  the  company's  success. 

In  summing  up  this  matter,  it  is  surprising  that  the 
Pennsylvania  people  are  so  confident  that  they  can  not 
get  a  good  man  for  their  road  unless  he  has  a  college 
education,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  they  stand  almost 
alone  on  this  subject,  and  also  that  this  country  has 
produced  many  of  the  strongest  and  most  thorough- 
going men  in  the  railroad  line  who  ever  lived,  nearly 
all  of  whom  had  not  a  college  education  and  in  many 
cases  but  a  small  amount  of  general  education. 

Among  these  we  find  such  men  as  Van  Horn, 
O'Shaughnessy,  Hughitt,  Harriman,  Huntington,  Hill, 
Ripley,  Winchell,  Harris,  Earling,  and  dozens  of 
others  that  might  be  named. 

Some  of  these,  notably  Mr.  Hill,  Mr.  Harriman 
and  Mr.  Huntington,  also  were  without  any  railroad 
training  when  they  went  into  this  line  of  business,  and 


244     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

never  had  made  a  conspicuous  success  in  the  line  of 
business  they  had  followed  previously. 

If  such  men  can  start  in  at  middle  life,  without 
previous  experience,  and  pick  up  the  railroad  business 
and  make  a  success  of  it,  surely  it  can  not  be  an  intri- 
cate business ;  and  I  can  not  understand  why  any  one 
should  claim  that  a  man  to  be  successful  in  it  must 
have  a  college  education. 

A  PRACTICAL  SUGGESTION. 

The  following  is  taken  from  the  second  edition  of 
Part  One  of  this  book.  It  applies  especially  to  such 
conditions  as  I  have  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company: 

A  number  of  years  ago  there  lived  in  Chicago 
Mr.  Allen  C.  Lewis,  who,  from  what  he  had  seen 
of  manual  training  and  technical  schools  during  his 
travels  abroad,  had  formed  the  opinion  that  these 
institutions  possessed  some  merit,  and  he  therefore 
decided  to  leave  his  large  fortune  for  the  establishment 
of  a  school  of  some  such  general  character.  It  was 
found,  upon  his  death,  that  he  had  left  to  trustees  in 
Chicago  a  sum  which  was  to  be  used  for  that  purpose 
when  it  had  accumulated  to  a  certain  figure. 

When  that  time  arrived,  the  trustees,  not  feeling 
certain  what  would  be  the  best  kind  of  a  school,  and 
wishing  to  make  no  mistake  in  a  matter  of  such  impor- 
tance, invited  a  large  number  of  prominent  men  in  that 
city  to  a  dinner  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  sub- 
ject. Some  time  after  that  meeting  it  occurred  to  me 
that  it  might  be  a  good  idea  to  establish  a  school  for 
the  training  of  men  for  railroad  work,  and  I  spoke  of 
it  to  several  prominent  railroad  men ;  but,  although 
they  talked  as  though  they  thought  it  might  be  a  good 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      245 

thing,  no  enthusiasm  whatever  was  shown  about  it.  I 
even  wrote  to  the  trustees  and  suggested  the  establish- 
ment of  such  a  school,  but  the  idea  was  not  adopted. 
Now,  in  view  of  the  high  opinion  which  many 
railroad  men  seem  to  hold  concerning  a  college  edu- 
cation (as  shown  by  their  answers  to  my  inquiry,  and 
by  their  letters  referred  to  by  President  Thwing,  of 
Adelbert  College,  in  his  articles  which  appeared  in 
several  publications  a  few  years  ago),  does  it  not  seem 
strange  that  it  has  never  occurred  to  any  of  them  to 
establish  such  a  school  as  I  have  just  mentioned,  or 
even  to  suggest  such  a  course  to  some  of  the  colleges  ?* 
This  is  especially  remarkable,  when  it  must  have  come 
to  their  notice  that  many  of  our  schools  and  colleges 
have  discovered  that  the  kind  of  education  they  have 
been  offering  in  the  past  has  not  been  along  sufficiently 
practical  lines,  and  are  now  anxiously  looking  for  sug- 
gestions that  will  make  their  course  of  study  more 
practical. 

LETTERS  FROM  PRESIDENT  THWING. 

As  a  glaring  example  of  the  wholesale  deception 
that  has  developed  in  connection  with  my  investigation 
of  this  subject,  I  will  refer  again  to  the  correspondence 
that  I  had  some  years  ago  with  Charles  F.  Thwing, 
president  of  Adelbert  College,  Cleveland. 

In  several  articles  published  by  him  he  mentioned 
the  fact  that  he  had  corresponded  with  the  heads  of  a 
hundred  prominent  railroads  in  this  country  with 
regard  to  the  value  of  college  education  for  young 
men  who  enter  the  railway  business.  As  he  claimed 

*  Since  this  was  written  I  understand  several  universi- 
ties—notably that  of  Illinois  —  have  added  courses  in  rail- 
roading. 


246      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

that  "  the  general  and  strong  tone  of  all  the  answers 
was  that  the  boy  should  be  educated,  and  that  the  col- 
lege represented  the  fitting  means,  methods  and  con- 
dition for  giving  him  an  education,"  I  wrote  him  sev- 
eral times,  asking  whether  he  could  give  me  the  names 
of  a  few  that  he  was  certain  were  acting  upon  that 
theory  in  their  business. 

All  the  information  I  was  able  to  secure  from 
him  is  a  letter  in  which  he  mentions  the  names  of  four 
railroad  presidents  who  he  thinks  are  honest  in  this 
matter,  but  he  says  he  may  be  mistaken  about  even 
these,  as  he  could  not  find  their  letters.  There  is  no 
doubt  in  my  mind  that,  if  President  Thwing  had  inves- 
tigated this  matter  more  thoroughly,  he  would  have 
found  that  not  one  among  the  entire  one  hundred  rail- 
road managers  with  whom  he  corresponded  actually 
gave  any  preference  whatever  to  men  who  had  received 
a  college  education. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
CARNEGIE  AND  TECHNICAL   SCHOOLS. 

At  this  point  I  can  imagine  some  one  asking :  Why 
do  such  men  as  Carnegie  put  millions  into  techno- 
logical schools  when  their  own  millions  come  chiefly 
through  the  aid  of  nontechnical-school  but  practical 
men? 

By  the  way,  I  feel  that  I  must  point  out  here  what 
I  consider  the  glaring  inconsistency  between  what  Mr. 
Carnegie  says  and  what  he  does,  because  so  many  look 
upon  him  as  a  wise  man,  and  as  having  had  such  a 
wide  practical  experience  in  mechanics  that  his  opin- 
ions carry  considerable  weight. 

I  quote  briefly  from  his  book,  "  The  Empire  of 
Business,"  published  no  longer  than  seven  years  ago. 
In  the  chapter  on  "  How  to  Win  Fortune,"  after  giv- 
ing a  long  list  of  the  best  known  industrial  estab- 
lishments in  several  lines  in  this  country,  Mr.  Carnegie 
says: 

Every  one  of  these  great  works  was  founded  and  man- 
aged by  mechanics  —  men  who  served  their  apprentice- 
ship. The  list  could  be  greatly  extended,  and  if  we  were 
to  include  those  which  were  credited  as  men  who  entered 
life  as  office  boys  or  clerks,  we  should  embrace  almost 
every  famous  manufacturing  concern  in  the  country. 

Further  on,  in  considering  successes  in  mercantile, 
commercial  and  financial  enterprises,  Mr.  Carnegie 
makes  this  significant  comment: 


248      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

The  absence  of  the  college  graduate  in  this  list  should 
be  deeply  weighed.  I  have  inquired  and  searched  every- 
where in  all  quarters,  but  find  small  trace  of  him  as  a 
leader  in  affairs. 

And  a  few  lines  farther: 

But  the  almost  total  absence  of  the  graduate  from 
high  positions  in  the  business  world  seems  to  justify  the 
conclusion  that  college  education  as  it  now  exists  seems 
almost  fatal  to  success  in  that  domain. 

THOSE  WHO  WIN. 

Turn  a  page  or  two  and  we  find  the  assertion : 

It  is  the  poor  clerk  and  the  working  mechanic  who 
finally  rule  in  every  branch  of  affairs,  without  capital, 
without  family  influence,  and  without  college  education. 

Now,  after  all  these  illustrations,  based  on  his  own 
experience  and  observation,  in  favor  of  the  practical 
man  against  the  technical  man,  or  college  graduate, 
Mr.  Carnegie  enters  the  field  of  pure  speculation,  and 
says  that  technically  trained  men  are  open-minded  and 
free  from  prejudice. 

He  has  nothing  whatever  upon  which  to  base  his 
assertion.  He  simply  goes  into  this  to  add  to  his 
glory  and  founds  a  $12,000,000  technological  institu- 
tion. 

If  he  had  taken  that  $12,000,000  and  added  another 
$12,000,000  to  it,  and  dumped  the  whole  amount  into 
the  ocean,  this  country  would  be  better  off. 

Mr.  Carnegie  has  argued  that  it  is  a  good  thing 
that  he  should  have  so  much  money,  because  he  can 
use  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  public.  Is  it  benefiting 
the  public  to  put  $12,000,000  into  his  technological 
institute,  to  turn  out  a  class  of  young  men  destined, 
according  to  his  own  unequivocal  assertion,  to  be  dis- 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      249 

tanced  in  the  business  race  by  "  the  poor  clerk  and 
the  working  mechanic  "  ? 

I  leave  it  to  the  reader  if  Mr.  Carnegie  has  taken 
the  course  a  sound  business  man  would  follow.  If  I 
had  the  naming  of  his  institute  I  should  call  it,  "  Car- 
negie's Twelve-million  Dollar  Blunder." 

It  will  be  seen,  as  Mr.  Carnegie  says,  that  there 
were  no  technically  educated  men  when  he  started  in 
business,  and  he  does  not  claim  to  have  had  any  since. 
He  was  not  man  enough  to  come  out  and  say  so  in  his 
answer. 

Not  only  this,  but  he  himself  states  that  it  is  the 
mechanic  who  has  done  everything  in  promoting  manu- 
facturing in  this  country,  and  the  college  man  has  not 
even  been  a  success  in  business.  After  putting  him- 
self on  record  this  way,  I  can  not  understand  why  Mr. 
Carnegie  should  all  at  once  go  over  to  the  other  side. 

A  LETTER  FROM  ANDREW  CARNEGIE. 

When  I  was  preparing  to  write  the  foregoing  I 
addressed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Carnegie,  telling  him  of  my 
purpose  and  asking  him  to  answer  the  following 
specific  questions: 

1.  Do  you  owe  your  success  in  business  to  any  con- 
siderable extent  to  technically  educated  mechanics  in  your 
employ  ? 

2.  If  so,  what  proportion  is  due  to  this  class  of  men 
in  your  employ  and  what  proportion  to  mechanics  who 
were  not  technically  educated? 

3.  If  you  do  not  owe  any  of  your  success  to  techni- 
cally educated  men,  why  do  you  establish  a  college   to 
educate  such  men? 

4.  In  your  experience,  aside  from  your  own  business, 
have  you  observed  that  technically  educated  men  are  more 
successful  than  those  who  are  not  so  educated? 


250     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

In  answer  I  received  the  following  letter : 

NEW  YORK,  December  20,  1907. 

My  DEAR  MR.  CRANE, —  I  have  little  time  to  devote  to 
the  defense  of  technical  education.  I  do  not  think  it 
needs  any.  It  is  speaking  for  itself  and  will  speak  for 
itself,  and  even  you  will  be  satisfied  by-and-by  that  we 
are  on  the  right  path. 

You  ask  me  four  questions :  To  the  first  I  answer  that 
when  I  started  business  I  did  not  know  of  one  technically 
educated  mechanic,  but  several  families  in  Pittsburg 
were  sending  their  young  men  to  Troy  and  especially  to 
Boston.  One  of  them  happened  to  be  a  relative  and  he 
has  made  a  great  success,  and  is  a  partner  now  in  one  of 
the  leading  firms  for  special  steels.  I  do  not  believe  he 
would  have  achieved  this  so  rapidly  if  it  had  not  been  for 
his  superior  education.  If  I  were  in  business  to-day,  the 
young  man  I  should  take  into  my  service  would  be  the 
most  highly  educated  mechanic. 

This  answers  all  your  four  questions  and  I  should  like 
to  ask  you  one  question  in  return.  The  apprenticeship 
system  is  a  thing  of  the  past;  what  do  you  propose  as  a 
substitute?  The  best  one  and  the  one  better  than  the 
original  is  to  give  instructions  to  young  men  in  technical 
schools.  I  asked  two  high  authorities  how  they  would 
answer  your  questions  and  beg  to  enclose  their  replies, 
which  please  return. 

Hoping  all  of  this  will  be  of  use  to  you  and  with  kind 
greetings  of  the  season,  I  am, 

Always  your  friend, 

ANDREW  CARNEGIE. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Carnegie  does  not  answer 
my  questions.  He  refers  to  the  first  one,  but  in  no 
adequate  sense  does  he  give  it  an  answer,  and  he 
ignores  the  other  three  entirely. 

There  were  no  technically  educated  mechanics  when 
he  started  in  business,  but  he  knows  of  one  young  man 
who  received  some  technical  education  and  afterward 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      251 

achieved  success  in  the  steel  business.  Surely  one 
success  is  not  enough  to  warrant  his  present  position 
on  technical  education. 

And  I  leave  it  to  the  reader  if  Mr.  Carnegie  has 
made  out  a  case  for  himself  or  has  treated  this  most 
important  matter  as  it  deserves. 

I  may  add  that  while  Mr.  Carnegie  has  not 
answered  my  questions,  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Carnegie  Technical  Schools,  who  appears  to  know 
more  about  Mr.  Carnegie's  affairs  than  he  does  him- 
self, has  made  the  broad  claim  that  practically  all  the 
success  that  has  come  to  Mr.  Carnegie  has  been  due  to 
technical  education. 

WITHHOLDING  CREDIT  WHEN  DUE. 

It  is  clear  from  the  foregoing  letter  that  Mr.  Car- 
negie is  withholding  the  credit  he  knows  to  be  due  to 
the  practical  mechanic  as  a  main  factor  in  his  own 
success,  and  that  he  adds  insult  to  injury  in  this  par- 
ticular by  permitting  Director  Hamerschlag,  of  the 
Carnegie  Technical  Schools,  to  make  for  those  schools 
and  similar  institutions  such  sweeping  claims.  Mr. 
Carnegie  must  know  that  it  is  absolutely  false  that 
his  own  success  in  business  has  been  due  in  any  degree 
to  the  influence  of  formal  technical  education. 

Thus  upon  injustice  to  the  practical  man  and  false 
theories  as  to  the  treatment  of  this  subject,  Mr.  Car- 
negie lays  the  foundation  for  justifying  his  support 
of  technical  education.  He,  in  fact,  misleads  the  pub- 
lic, and  his  course  can  not  fail  to  do  more  harm  than 
good. 

Mr.  Carnegie,  instead  of  answering  my  questions 
himself,  as  stated  above,  has  Mr.  Hamerschlag,  a 
director  of  the  Carnegie  Technical  School,  do  so. 


252     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

The  shop-trained  man  performs  his  work  within  the 
radius  of  his  arm;  the  technically  trained  man,  within 
the  radius  of  his  brain;  therefore,  technical  training  of 
an  individual  makes  him  valuable  in  direct  proportion  as 
his  education  is  manifested  by  results. 

I  asked  Mr.  Carnegie :  "  Do  you  owe  your  success 
in  business  to  any  considerable  extent  to  technically 
educated  mechanics?  "  [Meaning,  of  course,  mechan- 
ics graduated  from  technical  schools.] 

Mr.  Hamerschlag  answers  for  Mr.  Carnegie : 
"  Yes,  because  you  [Carnegie]  adopted  economic 
processes  of  manufacturing  and  labor-saving  machines, 
both  of  which  require  trained  minds  as  well  as  trained 
hands  to  perfect  and  operate." 

This  infers  that  Mr.  Carnegie  had  men  trained  in 
technical  schools  for  this  purpose,  which  is  not  true. 

Mr.  Hamerschlag  does  not  answer  this  question  at 
all  in  line  with  the  position  I  clearly  stated.  I  may 
admit  all  that  he  says  without  in  the  slightest  depart- 
ing from  my  own  position. 

He  uses  the  term  "trained  minds"  with  the  evi- 
dent purpose  of  giving  the  impression  that  the  train- 
ing was  done  in  the  schools  —  although  elsewhere  in 
his  letter  he  admits  that  such  mental  training  can  be 
obtained  in  the  shops.  He  knows  that  in  the  case  of 
Mr.  Carnegie  the  training  of  both  the  minds  and  the 
hands  was  done  in  the  shops. 

A  LACK  OF  FRANKNESS. 

Knowing  what  I  meant  by  "  technically  educated 
mechanics/'  his  answer  should  have  been  frankly  to 
the  effect  that  Mr.  Carnegie  does  not  owe  his  success 
to  technical  training  —  as  given  in  the  schools  —  but 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      253 

to  the  men  trained,  in  both  mind  and  hand,  in  the 
shops. 

This  answer  would  have  been  the  truth,  and  would 
have  avoided  misunderstanding  and  confusion. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Director  Hamerschlag  has 
strengthened  my  position  by  admitting,  practically,  that 
the  shops  give  both  the  mental  and  the  manual  train- 
ing necessary  to  bring  noteworthy  mechanical  success. 

The  more  I  reflect  on  this  matter,  the  more  am  I 
convinced  that  Mr.  Carnegie  made  a  grave  blunder  in 
not  answering  my  questions  himself,  from  his  own 
knowledge  and  experience,  honestly  giving  credit 
where  it  belongs  —  not  to  the  technical  graduate,  but 
to  the  practical,  shop-trained  mechanic. 

In  closing  his  letter  Mr.  Hamerschlag  says :  "  The 
persistent  demand  from  manufacturers  and  employ- 
ers for  the  graduates  of  technical  and  trade  schools 
is  marked  evidence  of  the  value  they  place  upon  the 
product  of  these  institutions." 

Then  let  us  hear  from  these  manufacturers  and 
employers.  Let  the  heads  of  such  industrial  institu- 
tions as  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  the  National  Tube  Company, 
the  Cambria  Iron  Works,  the  Jones  &  Laughlin  Com- 
pany, Pratt  &  Whitney,  Brown  &  Sharpe,  Starrett, 
etc. —  who  have  had  enough  experience  with  technical 
graduates  to  justify  them  in  drawing  conclusions  — 
tell  us  what  has  been  their  experience  with  technically 
trained  mechanics.  Let  such  men  as  Mr.  Edward 
Reynolds,  formerly  at  the  head  of  the  Allis  Works, 
Milwaukee,  testify  as  to  the  practical  value  of  the 
technical  graduate  in  the  mechanical  department  of 
the  industrial  field. 

If  such  men  as  these  will  say  that  they  have  found 


254      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

the  technically  trained  mechanic  —  I  mean  the  me- 
chanic who  has  taken  a  course  in  a  technical  school 
—  to  be  superior  to  the  practically  trained  mechanic  — 
that  is,  the  mechanic  hand  and  mind  trained  in  the 
shops  —  then,  and  then  only,  will  we  have  testimony 
against  my  position  that  is  worth  listening  to. 

FOUNDATION  OF  THE  MATTER. 

Let  us  get  right  down  to  the  foundation  of  the 
whole  matter.  Some  of  these  technical  schools  have 
been  in  operation  long  enough  to  show  results  —  that 
is,  to  demonstrate  whether  the  boys  they  turn  out  make 
better  or  more  successful  mechanics  than  those  trained 
entirely  in  the  shops. 

If  these  schools  think  they  can  give  a  good  account 
of  themselves  in  this  particular,  let  them  do  so.  Let 
them  show  where  technically  educated  men  have  built 
up  good,  solid,  competitive  businesses  of  their  own, 
or  where  they  have  entered  into  established  businesses 
and  materially  helped  them  —  that  is,  where  the  tech- 
nical graduate  has  done  as  well  as,  or  better  than,  the 
shop-trained  mechanic. 

This  matter  of  education,  in  all  lines,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  promoted  by  impractical  and  inexperienced  per- 
sons, who  know  little  or  nothing  about  the  material 
needs  of  the  people. 

For  example :  Mr.  Carnegie  does  not  know  —  for 
he  had  no  experience  with  them  —  that  the  technical 
man  has  any  merit,  but  he  does  know  —  as  his  own 
millions  constantly  tell  him  —  that  the  practical  man 
has  merit;  yet  he  says  in  his  haste  that  the  technical 
school  must  be  a  good  thing. 

I  do  not  know  of  a  sound,  practical  manufacturer 
anywhere  who  favors  these  schools. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      255 

I  challenge  any  technical  graduate  to  mention  any 
idea  that  he  got  in  his  school  that  he  has  found  he 
could  apply  to  advantage  in  the  factory. 

I  do  not  know  of  a  good,  successful,  substantial 
manufacturer  who  contributes  toward  the  support  of 
technical  schools. 

Those  who  do  support  and  seem  to  favor  them 
are  simply  men  of  theories. 

After  looking  over  all  that  has  been  said  both  for 
and  against  the  position  taken  in  my  paper,  I  am  more 
than  ever  convinced  of  the  soundness  of  my  conclu- 
sions, that  Mr.  Carnegie,  and  all  who  are  so  ardently 
supporting  and  favoring  technical  education,  are 
deceiving  the  public. 

Mr.  Carnegie  must  know  that  every  manufacturer 
is  compelled  by  competition  to  look  sharp  to  see  that 
he  has  the  most  up-to-date  managers  and  workmen, 
and  every  improved  tool  and  device  in  his  shops.  He 
must  be  thoroughly  wide-awake  in  every  respect  or  he 
will  be  doomed  to  destruction  by  competition. 

If  the  technical  graduate  is  so  essentially  the  man- 
ufacturing success  to-day  as  Mr.  Carnegie  would  have 
us  believe  he  is,  why  do  we  not  find  manufacturers, 
alive  on  every  other  business  point,  offering  unusual 
inducements  to  the  technically  trained  young  men  and 
telling  us  how  superior  they  are  to  the  practical,  shop- 
trained  mechanics? 

The  answer  is  simple :  The  manufacturer  is  not 
a  theorist.  He  demands  results,  and  he  employs  the 
sort  of  men  that  can  give  them. 

ONE  SERIOUS  BLUNDER. 

From  the  significant  absence  of  reputable  manu- 
facturers who  are  raising  their  voices  or  taking  up 


256     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

their  pens  in  advocacy  of  technical  education,  I  am 
led  to  conclude  that  Mr.  Carnegie  made  a  serious 
blunder  when  he  failed  to  specify  that  one  of  the 
conditions  of  his  foundation  should  be  the  education 
of  manufacturers  in  the  use  of  technically  educated 
men. 

With  the  evidence  to  my  mind  so  clearly  against 
the  wisdom  of  the  boy  spending  his  time  and  his  money 
in  getting  loaded  with  mechanical  theories  that  are  of 
no  use  to  him,  I  can  not  conclude  otherwise  than  that 
Mr.  Carnegie  has  put  his  $12,000,000  to  an  improper 
use,  because  through  this  move  he  presents  a  glittering 
temptation  to  the  boys  of  this  land  to  invest  money 
and  still  more  valuable  time  in  an  educational  scheme 
that  neither  Mr.  Carnegie  nor  any  one  else  really 
believes  in. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Carnegie's  chief  idea  in 
establishing  his  schools  was  to  immortalize  the  name 
of  "  Carnegie,"  and,  in  order  thus  to  perpetuate  his 
name,  he  calls  upon  thousands  of  the  youths  of  this 
country  to  sacrifice  eight  of  the  best  years  of  their 
lives  and  considerable  money  in  acquiring  an  educa- 
tion which,  even  when  he  established  his  schools, 
Mr.  Carnegie  himself  roundly  and  deliberately  con- 
demned. 

I  say  to  the  boys  of  this  country :  Don't  be  misled 
by  the  statement  of  Mr.  Carnegie's  that  if  he  were  in 
business  to-day  he  would  employ  only  the  best  edu- 
cated mechanics. 

The  fact  is,  he  would  have  none  of  these.  He 
would  go  about  his  business  just  as  he  did  when  he 
was  in  business,  for  the  money  he  could  get  out  of 
it.  And  for  this  simple  reason  he  would  give  the 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     257 

preference  now,  as  he  did  then,  to  the  practical,  shop- 
trained  mechanic ;  he  would  not  experiment  with  men 
he  knew  nothing  about.  This  statement  is  only  one  of 
Mr.  Carnegie's  plays  to  the  gallery. 


17 


CHAPTER    IX. 

MANUAL  TRAINING  IN   OUR  PUBLIC 
GRAMMAR  SCHOOLS. 

No  exception  is  likely  to  be  taken  to  the  general 
assertion  that  the  fundamental  purpose  of  education  is : 

(1)  To  make  good  citizens. 

(2)  To  make  them  self-supporting. 

As  the  great  bulk  of  our  boys  and  girls  get  all  of 
their  formal  education  in  the  grammar  grades,  it  fol- 
lows that  here  should  be  concentrated  our  most  earnest 
efforts  toward  realizing  the  fundamental  purposes  of 
all  school  training. 

For  this  reason  I  am  a  strong  advocate  of  manual 
training  in  the  grade  divisions  of  the  public  schools, 
and  do  not  see  much  sense  in  making  manual  train- 
ing a  feature  of  our  high  schools  —  so  long,  at  least, 
as  there  is  room  for  improvement  in  this  direction  in 
the  lower  grades. 

Good  citizenship  necessarily  includes  self-support, 
and  self-support  is  the  readiest  path  to  happiness.  I 
think  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  the  mechanic  and  the 
inventor  have  played  a  larger  share  than  any  other 
class  in  giving  the  world  those  things  that  tend  toward 
the  advancement  of  civilization  and  the  production  of 
comfort  and  happiness. 

It  also  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  vast  majority  of 
our  mechanics  and  inventors  have  gone,  and  still  are 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      259 

going,  into  the  actual  battle  of  life  direct  from  the 
grades  of  our  grammar  schools. 

REAL  CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTRY. 

It  has  been  said  that  man  without  tools  is  a  "  poor, 
bare,  forked  animal " ;  or,  as  Carlyle  puts  it,  "  With- 
out tools  he  is  nothing;  with  tools  he  is  all."  The 
real  captains  of  industry  are  found  among  the 
mechanics  and  inventors.  Invention  has  cheapened 
everything.  The  inventor  and  the  mechanic  made 
England  the  industrial  marvel  of  the  last  century ; 
they  are  making  America  the  industrial  marvel  of  this 
century.  Therefore,  to  the  turning  out  of  skilful 
mechanics  —  which  include  most  of  our  inventors  — 
we  should  devote  our  best  energies  and  our  highest 
intelligence. 

Owing  to  marked  changes  in  our  industrial  field  — 
the  systematizing  and  classifying  of  labor,  specializing, 
and  the  rapid  introduction  and  growth  of  labor-saving 
machinery  —  it  is  no  longer  as  practical  as  formerly 
for  the  manufacturer  to  undertake  the  preliminary 
training  of  boys  in  mechanical  lines.  But  it  is  essen- 
tial to  the  welfare  of  the  country  that  our  boys  be  so 
trained,  and  this  training  is  a  proper  function  of  our 
public  schools. 

Granted,  then,  that  pupils  in  the  grammar  grades 
should  receive  manual  training,  it  must  follow  that 
this  feature  should  be  managed  in  a  thoroughly  busi- 
nesslike manner,  that  it  should  be  kept  free  from  the 
evils  of  impractical  or  purely  theoretical  direction. 

I  am  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  at  present  all  the 
money  a  city  or  a  community  can  afford  to  spend  on 
manual  training  should  be  devoted  to  the  carrying 
out  of  this  work  in  the  grammar  schools ;  for  while 


260      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

manual  training  may  be  of  some  value  to  high-school 
pupils,  I  maintain  that  it  is  not  from  such  that  we 
will  get  our  supply  of  mechanics,  but  that  the  founda- 
tion for  the  making  of  mechanics  and  inventors  is  in 
teaching  practical  mechanics  to  the  boys  in  the  gram- 
mar grades;  for  they,  naturally,  are  the  ones  who 
will  get  into  mechanical  lines  after  leaving  school. 

What  is  needed  with  us  is  training  in  the  lower 
school  grades  that  will  tend  to  make  better  general 
mechanics,  that  is,  men  who  have  more  practical 
than  theoretical  knowledge.  The  country  is  very  well 
supplied  with  the  latter  class  of  labor. 

WIDE  FIELD  FOR  THE  ALL-AROUND  MECHANIC. 

There  is  a  wide  field  for  the  all-around  mechanic. 
Industrial  supervision  constantly  invites  him.  And 
the  boy  who  goes  from  the  grammar  school  to  the 
industrial  field  with  a  good  general  knowledge  of  the 
elements  of  practical  mechanics,  gained  through  intel- 
ligently directed  manual  training,  is  the  best  equipped 
for  advancement  to  the  higher  positions. 

As  to  the  cost  of  manual  training:  Should  the 
public  be  taxed  for  this  feature  of  public  educational 
work?  Why  not?  If  it  is  proper  to  furnish  free 
instruction  above  the  grammar  grades  in  art,  in  music, 
in  a  dozen  other  lines  commonly  called  "  fads,"  surely 
there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  wisdom  and  justice 
of  free  and  general  instruction  in  manual  training  in 
the  grammar  grades ;  for  such  training  must  be  in  the 
line  of  public  economy,  as  well  as  highly  beneficial  to 
the  children ;  it  tends  to  increase  the  prosperity  of  the 
whole  country  and  to  add  to  the  sum  of  human  hap- 
piness. 

What  I  have  said  about  manual  training  for  boys 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      261 

applies  equally  to  girls.  It  is  just  as  essential  to  train 
girls  that  they  may  be  good  homemakers  and  home- 
keepers  as  it  is  to  train  boys  that  they  may  support 
both  themselves  and  their  homes. 

To  sum  up:  Manual  training  should  be  a  feature 
of  every  public  grammar  school.  A  generous  part 
of  every  school  day  should  be  devoted  to  practical 
instruction  in  this  line.  Boys  as  well  as  girls  should 
share  in  it.  It  should  be  supported  liberally  by  public 
taxation.  Common  sense  should  be  the  chief  element 
in  its  direction. 

Manual  training  makes  skilful  hands.  It  is  the 
rational  cure  for  truancy.  And  if  it  were  more  lib- 
erally given  in  the  public  grammar  schools,  the  need 
for  truant  and  reform  schools  would  be  very  greatly 
lessened.  It  gives  to  the  ordinary  school  studies  a 
new  and  attractive  interest.  It  has  a  strong  influence 
on  morals.  It  is  the  best  investment  the  public  can 
make  and  will  return  liberal  dividends  both  in  the 
quality  and  the  quantity  of  our  future  citizenship. 

MANUAL  TRAINING,  DISTINCT  FROM  WORK  IN  GRAM- 
MAR GRADES,  is  COUSIN  TO  TECHNICAL  COURSES. 

The  manual-training  school,  as  a  distinct  institu- 
tion, is  cousin  to  the  technical  college,  and  should  be 
criticized  and  condemned  proportionately  with  it.  That 
is,  the  separate  and  distinct  manual-training  school 
harms  the  boy  for  four  years,  while  the  'technical 
school  adds  four  years  more. 

I  consider  the  manual-training  school,  detached 
from  elementary  education,  the  most  injurious  of  any 
schools  we  have,  from  the  fact  that  many  are  led  to 
believe  that  because  this  school  gives  manual  training 
it  is  going  to  result  in  producing  an  improved  body  of 


262     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

workmen.  It  seems  so  easy  to  deceive  people  this  way, 
even  intelligent  people,  because  the  average  person  not 
only  lacks  practical  experience,  but  does  not  take  the 
trouble  to  give  the  subject  proper  consideration. 

To  make  myself  clear,  I  shall  give  a  little  history 
of  my  connection  with  the  first  effort  to  establish  a 
manual-training  school  in  Chicago. 

ONE  CHICAGO  EXPERIMENT. 

About  twenty  years  ago  the  Chicago  Commercial 
Club  got  the  idea  that  it  wished  to  do  something 
besides  eat  dinners  and  talk,  and  thought  it  would 
strike  out  on  something  in  a  practical  line.  So  it  had 
the  subject  of  manual-training  schools  up  at  one  of  its 
dinners,  at  which  Professor  Woodward,  of  St.  Louis  — 
a  great  star,  by  the  way  —  painted  such  a  glowing 
word-picture  of  the  importance  of  manual-training 
schools  that  the  club  was  captured  completely  by  him. 
As  a  result,  a  committee,  of  which  I  was  a  member, 
was  chosen  to  go  to  St.  Louis  to  visit  the  professor's 
school,  and  to  determine  whether  we  thought  it  would 
be  advisable  to  establish  such  a  school  in  Chicago. 

On  visiting  the  school,  I  was  satisfied  at  once  that 
it  was  nothing  but  a  show  institution,  and  not  com- 
petent to  promote  mechanics,  and  I  so  told  my  fellow 
member  of  the  committee.  But  he  became  most 
enthusiastic  over  the  subject,  and  on  our  return  made 
one  of  his  brilliant  speeches  before  the  club.  As  he 
was  one  of  those  entirely  impractical  men,  but  pos- 
sessed a  lot  of  what  is  called  "  education  and  culture," 
he  carried  the  club  with  him. 

My  opinions,  expressed  naturally  in  a  simple,  mod- 
est way,  were  without  apparent  effect. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      263 

GIVEN  A  FAIR  TRIAL. 

As  a  result,  the  club  went  into  the  manual-training 
school  scheme,  and  I  was  put  on  the  committee  to  look 
after  the  project.  I  gave  it  good,  honest  attention,  and 
did  a  lot  of  work  for  a  number  of  years  to  get  the 
school  started  right. 

I  was  determined  to  give  the  school  a  fair  test ;  so 
from  the  first  batch  of  boys  that  it  graduated  I  took  a 
boy  —  who  was  poor,  and  therefore  the  most  promis- 
ing—  to  see  what  I  could  do  with  him  in  the  factory. 

I  placed  him  at  work  in  different  departments  for 
different  periods,  in  order  that  he  might  get  what  may 
be  called  an  all-around  mechanical  education.  I  kept 
him  in  the  shops  for  several  years  at  an  expense  of 
about  $2,000;  but  finally  his  head  became  so  swelled 
that  I  could  do  nothing  with  him,  and  I  had  to  let 
him  go. 

From  the  next  batch  of  graduates  I  selected  two, 
and  told  them  to  get  overalls  and  overshirts  and  come 
to  the  shop  on  Monday  morning,  and  I  would  see  that 
they  got  started  to  work. 

I  was  there  according  to  appointment,  but  was 
told  that  the  lads  had  been  there,  but  had  gone,  and  I 
never  saw  them  again. 

My  impression  is,  that  these  boys  did  not  like  the 
looks  of  the  shop  —  that  it  did  not  meet  their  expecta- 
tions or  accord  with  their  tastes  regarding  work,  so 
they  cleared  out. 

BOYS  SPOILED,  NOT  HELPED. 

Now,  this  is  exactly  what  I  expected  would  be  the 
case  when  I  was  looking  over  the  St.  Louis  school. 
Instead  of  helping  to  make  mechanics,  it  spoiled  the 
boys  for  mechanical  pursuits.  Having  found  the  Chi- 


264     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

cago  school  also  wanting,  I  immediately  withdrew 
from  any  further  interest  in  it.  I  considered  it  a  great 
humbug,  and  the  older  I  get  the  more  am  I  convinced 
that  my  estimate  was  right,  and  that  the  humbug  fea- 
ture of  such  institutions  has  not  grown  less. 

EDUCATION  FOR  BUSINESS. 

My  idea  generally  in  connection  with  this  subject  is, 
that  when  we  put  boys  through  the  common  grammar 
schools,  giving  them  manual  training  throughout  the 
grades  with  their  regular  studies,  we  are  giving  them 
on  the  educational  side  what  is  absolutely  required  for 
ordinary  pursuits  of  livelihood,  and  to  make  them  good 
and  useful  citizens.  I  believe  this  is  all  the  education 
that  is  required  for  ordinary  business. 

On  the  manual-training  side  in  the  grammar  school, 
the  boy  may  learn  a  great  deal  that  will  be  exceedingly 
useful  to  him  in  his  pursuit  of  a  livelihood,  whether  he 
goes  into  a  mechanical  trade  or  not.  He  certainly 
should  be  well  equipped  to  begin  the  practical  pursuits 
of  life.  Manual  training  at  this  time  of  his  life  also 
tends  to  give  him  a  liking  and  respect  for  mechanical 
pursuits. 

Practically  every  one  of  the  successful  men  of  this 
country  never  had  any  more  education  than  the  gram- 
mar schools  impart,  and  probably  a  great  many  of  them 
did  not  get  even  half  as  much,  with  no  manual  training 
whatever.  This  makes  it  perfectly  clear  to  me  that  a 
grammar-school  education  is  all  that  is  required  for 
ordinary  business  pursuits.  And  a  boy  so  equipped 
to-day,  with  such  manual  training  as  now  is  given  in 
some  of  the  grammar  grades,  is  even  better  prepared 
for  the  battle  of  life  than  were  the  men  who  made  this 
country  what  it  is. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      265 

WEAKENING  THE  FOUNDATION. 

I  contend  that  when  we  go  beyond  this  we  begin 
to  weaken  or  tear  down  the  foundation  we  have  been 
building  in  the  common  grammar  school.  When  we 
offer  education  higher  than  this,  we  practically  say  to 
the  boys :  "  If  you  will  come  to  this  higher  school  we 
will  qualify  you  for  something  better  than  mechanical 
pursuits  and  the  ordinary  drudgery  of  life,"  and  thus 
teach  disrespect  for  the  person  who  has  had  nothing 
but  a  grammar-school  education.  We  lead  the  boy  to 
believe  that  by  going  through  the  high  school  he  will 
be  able  to  make  a  living  much  easier  and  more  pleas- 
antly than  if  he  quit  at  the  grammar  school. 

THE  TRADE  SCHOOL  UNNECESSARY. 

In  a  letter  written  to  me,  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie 
says :  "  The  apprentice  system  is  a  thing  of  the  past ; 
what  do  you  propose  as  a  substitute?  The  best  one 
and  the  one  better  than  the  original  is  to  give  instruc- 
tions to  young  men  in  technical  schools." 

I  have  fully  dealt  with  Mr.  Carnegie's  proposed 
substitute,  that  the  prime  essentials  in  the  making  of 
good  mechanics  are  not  given  in  any  technological 
course,  but  by  long  experience  and  close  observation  in 
the  practical  working  of  an  up-to-date  shop  or  factory. 

MARKED  INDUSTRIAL  CHANGES. 

It  is  true  that  the  older  method  of  making  me- 
chanics through  iron-clad  apprenticeship  contracts 
practically  has  passed  in  this  country. 

Marked  changes  have  occurred  in  the  industrial 
field.  Manufacturing  has  become  highly  systematized 
and  specialized.  Consequently  the  use  and  application 
of  labor  are  very  different  from  former  times. 


266     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

These  changes  present  certain  obstacles  to  the 
making  of  mechanics,  but  I  do  not  consider  them 
insurmountable ;  for  they  all  may  be  overcome  through 
systematic  manual  training  in  the  grammar  grades  of 
the  common  schools. 

Mr.  Carnegie  and  other  advocates  of  technical  and 
industrial  education  claim  that  the  technological  course, 
the  advanced  manual  training,  and  the  trade  school  are 
to  do  this  preliminary  training,  and  that  they  will  pro- 
duce material  for  the  shop  as  good  as,  if  not  better 
than,  was  produced  under  the  old  apprenticeship  sys- 
tem. 

No  SCHOOL  CAN  TEACH  A  TRADE. 

Here  is  where  Mr.  Carnegie  and  I  part  company. 
I  maintain  that  no  school  can  teach  a  trade ;  that 
even  under  present  industrial  conditions  no  school 
is  needed  for  the  teaching  of  trades  —  provided  a  rea- 
sonable amount  of  manual  training  is  given  throughout 
the  grades  of  the  grammar  schools. 

The  one  place  to  learn  a  trade  is  in  the  shops.  The 
best  trade  school  in  the  world  would  leave  the  boy 
with  a  great  deal  still  to  be  mastered  before  he  could 
be  considered  efficient.  Then  why  ask  him  to  waste 
his  time  in  a  trade  school  or  technical  course  ? 

To  apply  my  argument  practically,  I  may  mention 
conditions  in  the  Crane  Company  shops  to-day.  We 
find  that  in  our  business  we  have  no  trouble  in  train- 
ing boys  to  make  mechanics.  It  should  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  we  have  a  slight  advantage  —  but  only  a 
slight  one  —  over  what  might  be  called  shops  that  are 
specializing  exclusively.  We  have  boys  who  knock 
around  for  some  time  in  the  various  departments, 
where  they  can  not  fail  to  get  some  knowledge  of  gen- 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      267 

eral  mechanics,  and  these  boys  we  have  no  particular 
difficulty  in  training  into  good  mechanics. 

How  WE  TRAIN  APPRENTICES. 

We  have  skilled  mechanics,  and  a  supply  of  appren- 
tices —  for  they  are  apprentices  in  every  sense  of  the 
word  —  sufficient  for  all  our  needs. 

These  apprentices  are  trained  in  our  tool  and 
machine  shops,  where  all  the  work  is  high-grade ;  con- 
sequently we  are  under  as  much  disadvantage  in  regard 
to  the  class  of  work  we  are  doing  as  any  factory  in 
the  making  of  skilled  workmen. 

There  is  a  feeling  general  among  Americans  that 
they  do  not  like  to  be  bound  or  placed  under  unusual 
restraint.  This  feeling  we  respect.  Our  apprentices 
are  not  held  by  formal  contract,  but  by  an  unwritten 
contract  which  makes  it  clear  to  them  that  it  is  good 
policy  on  their  part  to  be  faithful  and  industrious,  to 
be  prompt  and  alert,  to  take  advantage  of  all  the 
opportunities  we  offer  them  for  acquiring  a  trade  and 
for  promotion.  The  certainty  of  advancement  if  they 
deserve  it  is  a  stronger  incentive  to  steadiness  and 
efficiency  than  any  formal  contract  could  be.  Every 
boy  works  on  his  merits,  and  is  paid  somewhat  in 
proportion  to  the  value  of  his  services. 

BOYS  GENERALLY  STAY. 

These  boys  are  free  to  go  if  they  wish,  but  the 
fact  is,  that  generally  they  stay  and  learn  their  trades, 
and  remain  thereafter  in  the  employ  of  the  company. 

So,  after  all  that  has  been  said  about  the  passing 
of  the  old  apprentice  system,  we  have  no  difficulty  in 
making  our  mechanics.  We  experience  no  disadvan- 
tage in  producing  not  only  our  skilled  workmen,  but 


268     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

our  own  assistant  foremen,  foremen,  superintendents, 
etc.  Practically  all  of  our  responsible  help  has  come 
up  from  the  ranks ;  and  in  many  cases  has  been  devel- 
oped from  boys  who  got  their  trades  with  us. 

And  not  only  do  we  supply  our  own  men  in  this 
way,  but  plenty  of  employers  on  the  outside  are  seek- 
ing mechanics  produced  in  our  factories,  and  many 
who  have  .learned  their  trades  with  us  have  gone  out 
in  this  way  and  are  occupying  good  positions  to-day. 

I  am  confident  that  many  employers  in  mechanical 
lines  would  ten  times  rather  have  a  Crane-trained  man 
than  the  best  man  that  ever  came  out  of  a  trade  school 
or  technical  college. 

No  LACK  OF  MECHANICS. 

As  we  have  accomplished  all  this  without  the  aid 
even  of  such  manual  training  in  the  grammar  schools 
as  I  advocate,  and  as  I  firmly  believe  such  manual  train- 
ing would  supply  all  that  may  have  been  lost  in  substi- 
tuting modern  for  old-time  shop  methods,  I  can  not  see 
any  difficulty  in  the  way  of  every  manufacturer  getting 
all  the  mechanical  help  he  may  need,  without  the  aid  of 
trade  or  technical  schools,  when  manual  training  is 
made  general  in  the  grammar  schools. 

Even  if  it  were  true  that  it  is  difficult  to  get  good 
men  under  present  conditions,  there  would  be  no  sense 
in  going  to  technical-training  schools  for  help,  because 
that  would  be  simply  so  much  worse.  This  Mr.  Car- 
negie would  know  if  he  knew  anything  about  manu- 
facturing, but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  could  not  be 
expected  to  have  any  knowledge  of  this  kind,  because 
he  knows  nothing  about  manufacturing,  and  never  did. 
I  do  not  know  of  anything  more  absurd  than  for  him 
to  pose  as  an  authority  on  matters  of  this  kind. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      269 

TRADE  SCHOOLS  Do  MORE  HARM  THAN  GOOD. 

I  think  the  trade  school  will  do  more  harm  than 
good.  It  is  not  needed.  It  takes  up  the  time  of  the 
boy  that  should  be  spent  in  the  shops,  and  it  costs  him 
money  instead  of  paying  him  something  for  his  labor. 

What  I  offer  in  place  of  the  old  apprentice  system 
is  something  like  we  are  doing  in  our  own  factories. 
Give  the  boys  a  good  grammar-school  education,  and 
plenty  of  manual  training  in  the  grammar  grades. 
Then  let  them  get  to  work  in  the  shops.  Working  at 
their  trades,  and  using  their  spare  time  wisely,  will 
give  them  all  the  practical  and  technical  knowledge 
they  require  for  any  position  and  for  the  solving  of  any 
problem  that  the  shop  may  have  to  offer. 


CHAPTER    X. 

AGRICULTURAL   SCHOOLING  — DO   ITS 
RESULTS  JUSTIFY  ITS  EXPENSE? 

There  are  in  the  United  States  to-day  some  seventy 
agricultural  colleges  and  schools  —  with  their  regular, 
short  and  special  courses  —  enjoying  the  benefits  of 
the  general  government  acts  of  1862  and  1890. 

They  have  an  enrollment  of  more  than  60,000  stu- 
dents. The  value  of  the  property  of  these  institutions 
is  nearly  $86,000,000,  of  which  enormous  sum  $50,- 
500,000  represents  material  equipment.  Their  income 
from  various  sources  is  about  $14,000,000. 

They  are  supported  through  grants  from  the  State, 
about  fifty-five  per  cent ;  grants  from  the  federal  gov- 
ernment, about  fifteen  per  cent,  and  endowments,  gifts, 
fees,  etc.,  about  thirty  per  cent. 

Add  to  this  the  expense  to  the  students  and  their 
loss  of  time,  and  it  will  be  seen  readily  what  an  im- 
mense expense  is  connected  with  this  branch  of  public 
education. 

REASONABLE  TO  ASK  PROOF. 

In  view  of  this  great  expense,  it  is  neither  unrea- 
sonable nor  unfair  to  require  of  these  institutions  clear 
proof  that  they  are  of  benefit  to  the  public,  at  least 
commensurate  with  their  cost. 

You  can  not  expect  the  public  to  take  this  for 
granted.  There  is  so  much  being  written  and  said 
about  the  utility  and  great  importance  of  these  institu- 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      271 

tions  that  naturally  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  they  may 
be  overestimated  and  the  public  deceived.  Among  the 
boastful  claims  made  for  them  I  cite  the  remark  of  the 
Hon.  James  Bryce,  before  a  graduating  class  of  the 
Agricultural  College  of  Wisconsin,  that  "  here  in  Wis- 
consin, you  have,  by  the  judicious  application  of  science 
to  agriculture,  practically  doubled  the  output  of  your 
soil."  This  may  be  taken  as  an  example.  Almost  as 
striking  claims  have  been  made  by  the  colleges  them- 
selves. 

To  a  person  who  has  worked  on  a  farm,  and  had 
a  long  and  extended  observation  of  farming  activities, 
such  statements  seem  most  absurd. 

ALLOWANCE  FOR  EXAGGERATION. 

I  make  due  allowances  for  the  enthusiasm  of  a 
public  speaker,  and  even  for  the  exaggerations  of 
some  educators ;  and  I  will  not  ask  our  agricultural 
educational  agencies  to  show  one  hundred  per  cent  of 
benefit  to  the  farming  community,  or  even  fifty  per 
cent. 

In  fact,  our  farming  industry  is  so  immense  and 
important  that  I  should  consider  the  cost  of  our  agri- 
cultural education  justified  if  the  colleges  could  show  a 
gain  of  even  ten  per  cent  to  the  country  and  agriculture 
through  their  efforts. 

And  in  going  into  this  inquiry  I  challenge  the  col- 
leges and  schools  to  show  even  this. 

As  to  the  claim  that  has  been  made  that  a  full 
course,  consisting  of  four  years  in  high  school  and 
four  years  in  an  agricultural  college,  is  a  good  invest- 
ment for  the  farmer,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  it 
utterly  absurd  and  not  meriting  consideration. 


272     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

In  a  general  way  these  colleges  and  schools  give 
instruction  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmer  in  agriculture 
and  mechanic  arts,  ( I )  direct  to  students  in  full,  short, 
and  special  courses,  (2)  through  bulletins  mailed  free 
to  farmers,  and  (3)  by  lectures  delivered  at  Farmers' 
Institutes.  They  also  claim  "  to  prepare  teachers, 
investigators,  and  men  who  have  the  ability  to  extend 
the  fields  of  agricultural  knowledge." 

They  have  run  wild  on  education,  and  have  gone 
into  a  great  variety  of  higher  education  having  no 
connection  whatsoever  with  agriculture. 

GREATEST  OF  OUR  INDUSTRIES. 

It  is  generally  recognized  that  farming  is  the  most 
important  of  our  industries,  and  that  the  farmers  are 
among  the  most  substantial  of  our  citizens. 

Therefore,  anything  that  gives  reasonable  promise 
of  helping  the  farmer,  of  bettering  agriculture,  readily 
meets  with  the  support  of  public  approval  and  the 
public  purse. 

And  it  is  consistent  with  this  support,  and  the 
great  public  expense,  that  we  should  hold  the  agri- 
cultural colleges  and  schools  as  stewards  of  the  public 
and  demand  of  them  an  account  of  their  stewardship. 

Certainly,  the  people  who  put  their  hands  into  their 
pockets  and  support  these  institutions  have  a  right  to 
this  accounting.  The  whole  community  is  taxed  to 
support  them,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  do 
so  if  it  derives  no  benefit  from  them. 

I  shall  give  the  results  of  my  investigations,  based 
chiefly  upon  responses  to  letters  of  inquiry  that  I  have 
sent  out  to  practical  farmers,  students,  graduates  and 
heads  of  representative  agricultural  institutions. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     273 

It  should  be  noted  that  in  this  investigation  I  am 
treating  the  agricultural  colleges  and  the  experimental 
stations  as  one. 

WHY  HAS  THE  CROP  YIELD  FALLEN? 

I  might  have  dismissed  this  whole  subject  of  the 
utility  of  our  agricultural  colleges,  simply  by  referring 
to  the  statistics  on  farming,  which  show  that  the  yield 
per  acre  of  farm  crops,  in  all  the  middle  section  of  the 
country,  has  fallen  largely  since  the  agricultural  col- 
leges were  started,  instead  of  having  increased  one 
hundred  per  cent,  as  Mr.  Bryce  said  was  the  case  for 
Wisconsin,  on  the  authority  of  the  agricultural  college 
men. 

I  also  might  dismiss  this  whole  subject  simply  by 
saying  that  every  feature  of  the  farming  industry  was 
thoroughly  understood  and  exhaustively  treated  in 
books  long  before  agricultural  colleges  were  started, 
and  that  nothing  of  importance  has  been  discovered  or 
added  to  this  knowledge  since. 

Realizing,  however,  the  strong  hold  these  agricul- 
tural colleges  seem  to  have  on  the  public,  it  is  necessary 
to  go  into  this  matter  at  length,  to  show  up,  as  fully  as 
may  be,  the  false  and  misleading  claims  made  by  these 
institutions,  and  to  give  the  results  of  my  investigation. 

In  beginning  the  investigation,  I  took  what  seemed 
to  be  the  natural  and  most  direct  way ;  I  went  straight 
to  headquarters,  in  an  endeavor  to  get  from  the  college 
heads  some  information  as  to  what  agricultural  col- 
leges are  accomplishing  in  this  line,  for  they  certainly 
ought  to  be  in  a  position  to  furnish  this. 

18 


274      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

COLLEGE  MEN  QUESTIONED. 

Following  is  a  set  of  questions  I  sent  to  heads  of 
Agricultural  College,  Michigan,  and  the  agricultural 
colleges  of  the  Universities  of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin : 

1.  In  what  respect  do  you  find  the  good  farmers  de- 
ficient in  operating  their  farms? 

2.  Have  you  ever  issued  any  general  instructions  to 
farmers,  directing  them  how  to  run  their  farms  to  the  best 
advantage?    If  so,  what  are  they? 

3.  Have  you  ever  taken  one  or  more  good  farms  and 
operated  them   for  the  purpose  of   demonstrating  what 
they  were   capable  of  producing  under   what  might  be 
termed   scientific  and   intelligent  farming?     If  so,   state 
results  obtained,  number  of  farms,  names  of  owners,  and 
where  located. 

5.  (a)   Do  not  such  gatherings  as  State  and  county 
fairs,   and  the  various   periodicals   and  other   literature 
published  for  the  farmer,  supply  him  with  all  the  informa- 
tion necessary  to  enable  him  to  obtain  the  best  results 
from  his  farm? 

(b)  If  not,  can  not  persons  situated  as  you  are,  fur- 
nish him  with  the  information  he  lacks  without  it  being 
necessary  for  him  to  spend  his  time  and  money  attending 
an  agricultural  college?  If  you  believe  this  to  be  imprac- 
ticable, please  state  your  reasons. 

6.  Have  you  ever  received  applications  from  practical 
farmers  for  young  men  from  your  school  to  work  on  their 
farms?     If  so,  please  give  the  names  and  addresses  of 
these  farmers. 

[As  question  4  relates  to  another  branch  of  the  inquiry, 
it  is  omitted  here.] 

Answers  to  this  inquiry  were  received  from  one 
of  the  faculty  of  the  Wisconsin  college  (who  was 
careful  to  say  that  he  expressed  merely  his  personal 
opinion),  and  from  the  dean  and  director  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture  at  the  University  of  Illinois. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     275 

To  print  their  letters  in  full  would  occupy  too  much 
space  and  I  therefore  give  a  synopsis  of  them  as  fol- 
lows, showing  from  their  testimony  how  completely 
they  fail  in  doing  any  good  to  the  farmer. 

Wisconsin  University. —  While  my  correspondent 
claims,  in  answering  the  first  question,  that  good 
farmers  are  deficient  in  many  respects,  he  answers 
practically  "  No  "  to  the  second  question,  except  such 
instruction  as  is  "  contained  in  the  bulletins  and  reports 
published  by  experiment  stations."  The  third  question 
is  also  answered  in  the  negative.  To  question  5  he 
answers,  "  Yes,  if  he  has  the  power  to  absorb  and 
digest  and  the  will-power  to  execute,"  and  admits  that 
there  is  nothing  so  effective  as  the  example  of  what 
others  are  doing.  At  the  same  time  he  claims  the 
farmer  requires  the  inspiration  that  comes  from  college 
associations,  the  inference  being  that  this  is  the  only 
thing  the  farmer  needs  to  go  to  college  for,  as  he  gets 
everything  else  by  observation  and  experience. 

THE  VOICE  OF  OTHER  COLLEGES. 

Illinois  University. —  After  claiming  in  his  answer 
to  the  first  question  that  the  principal  deficiency  in 
good  farmers  is  "  along  economic  lines,"  the  corre- 
spondent answers  "  No  "  to  questions  2,  and  3  and  adds 
that  "  the  best  demonstrations  of  good  farming  are 
those  that  are  being  made  upon  thousands  of  success- 
ful farms  throughout  the  State,  and  there  are  about  as 
many  models  of  them  as  there  are  individual  farmers," 
which  gives  the  inference  that  his  school  is  entitled  to 
credit  for  these  successful  farmers. 

This,  of  course,  is  absolutely  false.  If  it  proves 
anything  it  proves  that  the  farmers  obtained  success 
without  the  colleges  and  therefore  do  not  need  them. 


276     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

He  answers  "  No  "  to  question  5,  adding  that  the 
farmer  "  needs  a  vast  store  of  that  which  is  got  on  his 
own  ground  by  his  own  information  and  experience." 
He  can  not  get  it  all  from  examples. 

In  answering  question  6,  both  Wisconsin  and  Illi- 
nois claim  they  are  receiving  many  applications  for 
their  graduates  from  the  farmers;  but  this  statement 
does  not  agree  with  the  facts  thus  far  brought  out  in 
my  investigation,  which  show  that  there  is  but  little 
demand  among  the  first-class  farmers  for  this  class  of 
help. 

WHERE  THE  COLLEGES  ARE  LACKING. 

Fearing  that  the  replies  from  the  colleges,  and  my 
comments  as  given  above,  may  be  too  complicated  for 
my  readers  to  digest  them,  I  will  give  the  substance  of 
them  briefly: 

While  they  claim  that  the  farmers  are  deficient  in 
the  running  of  their  farms,  they  admit  that  they  are 
doing  nothing  in  the  way  of  issuing  general  instruc- 
tions directing  the  farmers  how  to  operate  their  farms 
to  the  best  advantage,  and  that  they  have  never  taken  a 
farm  and  operated  it  for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating 
what  it  is  capable  of  producing  under  what  might  be 
termed  scientific  or  intelligent  farming,  which  would 
be  the  natural  and  businesslike  method  if  the  colleges 
possessed  any  information  of  value  to  the  farmers. 

The  statement  already  quoted  from  the  letter 
received  from  the  Illinois  college,  that  "the  best 
demonstrations  of  good  farming  are  those  that  are 
being  made  upon  thousands  of  successful  farms 
throughout  the  State"  (which  applies  equally  well  to 
every  farming  State  in  this  country),  goes  right  to  the 
bottom  of  this  whole  question. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     277 

PLENTY  OF  SUCCESSFUL  FARMS. 

The  country  is  full  of  these  successful  farms,  and 
farmers  everywhere  have  an  opportunity  to  observe 
them  and  in  this  way  become  acquainted  with  the  best 
farming  practice. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  lack  of  substantial 
information  on  this  subject,  I  refer  to  a  conversation 
that  I  recently  had  with  a  prominent  Illinois  farmer. 
He  stated  that,  upon  applying  to  one  of  the  leading 
professors  of  the  Illinois  college  for  information  as  to 
what  to  do  in  order  to  get  the  best  results  from  a  cer- 
tain piece  of  land,  he  was  advised  to  put  it  into  clover 
and  then  go  through  the  regular  process  of  plowing 
this  in,  which,  of  course,  would  necessitate  the  loss  of  a 
crop  that  year. 

Instead  of  doing  this,  the  farmer  bought  fertilizer, 
which  resulted  in  a  large  crop  that  season,  and  thus  he 
was  a  long  way  ahead  on  the  venture.  Still,  this  farmer 
says  that  fertilizers  are  expensive  and  that  good  judg- 
ment must  be  exercised  in  applying  them. 

It  will  sometimes  be  noticed  that  one  farmer  will 
obtain  say  80  bushels  of  corn  per  acre,  while  the  farmer 
on  the  adjoining  piece  of  land  will  have,  perhaps,  only 
40  bushels,  and  the  question  naturally  arises,  why  does 
not  the  latter  consider  it  to  his  advantage  to  get  as 
much  out  of  his  land  as  his  neighbor? 

MORE  LIGHT  NEEDED. 

The  one  obtaining  the  80  bushels  must  do  this 
either  by  the  use  of  fertilizers  or  by  allowing  his  land 
to  be  pastured  for  a  year  and  in  that  way  become 
enriched ;  and,  as  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  the  man 
who  gets  only  half  this  quantity  is  entirely  ignorant,  I 


278      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

think  it  may  be  concluded  he  feels  he  is  just  as  well 
off  with  a  crop  of  40  bushels  as  he  would  be  if  he  went 
to  the  expense  of  fertilizers,  or  allowed  his  land  to  go 
into  pasture  for  a  time,  in  order  to  secure  double  that 
quantity. 

From  the  foregoing  it  is  evident  that  this  subject  is 
far  from  being  solved  and  that  there  is  a  chance  for 
much  light  to  be  thrown  on  it. 

The  only  thing  the  colleges  have  undertaken  in  the 
branch  of  farming  covered  by  this  investigation,  has 
been  the  teaching  of  it  and  the  conducting  of  experi- 
ments on  a  small  scale,  which,  in  my  opinion,  can  be  of 
but  little  value,  as  it  is  mainly  theoretical,  the  teachers 
being  simply  theorists. 

VALUE  OF  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE  WORK  NOT  CON- 
CLUSIVE. 

The  great  problem  to-day  for  the  farmer,  and, 
indeed  for  everyone  who  is  interested  in  the  question, 
is  how  to  get  the  most  out  of  the  soil  and  maintain  its 
maximum  fertility.  Any  person  who  is  able  to  throw 
light  on  this  subject  is  entitled  to  the  greatest  con- 
sideration. 

It  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  note  to  questions 
i  and  2,  [in  the  subjoined  list  of  questions]  that  I 
wished  to  except  from  this  part  of  the  inquiry  such 
special  features  as  butter  and  cheese  making,  stock 
breeding,  special  fertilizers,  and  the  study  of  seeds. 
For  the  present,  therefore,  I  shall  consider  only  the 
three  classifications  —  rotation  of  crops,  cultivation, 
and  the  care  and  feeding  of  stock. 

These  three  features  cover  about  ninety  per  cent 
of  all  that  concerns  the  ordinary  farmer.  The  other 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      279 

subjects  will  be  considered  later  on  in  this  investiga- 
tion. 

I  have  mentioned  two  reasons  why  I  might  dis- 
miss, without  further  inquiry,  the  whole  question  of  the 
agricultural  college  helping  the  farmer.  I  may  now 
name  still  another  reason. 

Among  the  questions  I  asked  the  colleges  as  to 
where  they  found  the  farmer  deficient,  they  enu- 
merated certain  things. 

I  also  asked  them  whether  they  ever  had  issued  any 
general  instructions  to  assist  the  farmer  in  running  his 
farm,  and  they  said  they  had  not. 

Now,  it  is  inconceivable  how  any  institution  can 
help  a  person  without  giving  him  definite  and  clear 
instructions  as  to  how  to  do  his  work;  particularly 
where  it  seems  to  be  apparent  that  the  person  is  doing 
his  work  wrong. 

QUESTIONS  ASKED  OF  FARMERS. 

As  the  colleges  admittedly  fail  here,  I  shall  present 
the  testimony  of  farmers  themselves  as  to  the  practical 
value  of  agricultural  education. 

From  the  county  clerks  of  twenty-eight  counties  in 
the  States  of  Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  (and  in 
sections  immediately  surrounding  the  respective  agri- 
cultural colleges,  because  there,  if  anywhere,  the  bene- 
fits of  the  colleges  should  be  known)  the  names  of  464 
representative  farmers  were  received ;  and  to  these  the 
following  questions  were  sent : 

i.  Have  agricultural  colleges  been  of  any  assistance 
to  you  in  operating  your  farm,  either  through  literature 
that  they  have  published,  or  by  lectures? 


280     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

2.  If  so,  please  state  specifically  how  they  have  helped 
you. 

(NOTE. —  This  investigation  has  reference  only  to  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  the  running  of  an  ordinary  farm  and 
does  not  include  special  features,  such  as  butter  and 
cheese  making,  stock  breeding,  special  fertilizers,  the  study 
of  seeds,  or  the  other  matters  that  belong  to  the  experi- 
mental station.) 

3.  Have  you  ever  employed  on  your  farm  any  person 
who  had  attended  an  agricultural  college  ? 

4.  If  so,  what  has  been  your  experience  with  such 
help  —  that  is,  have  you  found  their  services  more  satis- 
factory than  the  services  of  ordinary   farm  hands  who 
never  attended  college  ? 

5.  If  you  consider  the  former  class  of  help  more  sat- 
isfactory, please  state  in  what   respect  you  have   found 
them  so. 

6.  Would   you  be   willing  to   pay   such   help   higher 
wages  than  the  ordinary  farm  hand,  and  if  so,  how  much 
higher  ? 

7.  What  is  the  general  impression  in  your  neighbor- 
hood regarding  the  merits  of  agricultural  colleges? 

8.  Have  you  sent  any  of  your  children  to  an  agricul- 
tural college? 

9.  If  so,  do  you  feel  that  they  have  been  benefited  by 
such  experience? 

10.  If  they  were  benefited,  please  give  some  details 
regarding  the  benefits  derived;  also  state  whether  you 
consider  that  these  benefits  are  worth  what  it  costs  to 
take  a  course  in  one  of  these  schools,  estimating  this  to 
be  about  $3,000. 

This  set  of  questions  was  answered  more  or  less 
fully  by  163  persons. 

CLASSIFYING  THE  ANSWERS. 

The  answers  first  were  divided  into  two  classifica- 
tions —  those    favoring  the   general   proposition   that 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     281 

agricultural  colleges  are  beneficial;  and  those  who  do 
not  consider  them  of  assistance. 

In  the  first  classification  forty-one  were  favorable 
without  stating  why,  and  fifty-four  were  favorable, 
stating  reasons  for  their  position  —  a  total  of  ninety- 
five. 

In  the  second  classification  sixty-eight  answered 
"  No  "  to  the  first  question. 

From  this  classification  it  will  be  seen  that  a  ma- 
jority of  the  farmers  responding  are  disposed  to  say  a 
good  word  for  the  agricultural  colleges;  but  a  close 
analysis  shows  that,  with  a  few  exceptions,  they  fail 
to  be  convincingly  specific  in  answering  the  first  and 
second  of  my  questions. 

But,  granting  that  every  one  answering  "  Yes  "  to 
these  questions  had  specifically  shown  practical  bene- 
fit through  the  activities  of  these  colleges,  the  question 
still  would  remain:  Would  this  benefit  justify  the 
existence  of  the  agricultural  colleges  at  public  expense  ? 

I  maintain  that  educational  enterprises  should  be 
carried  on  at  public  expense  only  where  they  meet  with 
practically  unanimous  public  approval. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  anything  that  is 
looked  upon  with  disfavor  by  so  large  a  minority  as  is 
shown  in  the  answers  received  from  my  inquiries,  can 
be  of  material  advantage  or  can  be  considered  fairly  as 
a  justifiable  public  charge. 

The  farmers  who  in  their  answers  speak  favorably 
of  the  colleges  seem  to  take  three  general  views : 

First:  They  think  the  experimental  work  of  the 
colleges  will  help  them. 

Second:  They  receive  information  of  benefit  to 
them  in  their  farming  from  the  general  Government 
through  these  State  institutions. 


282     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

Third :  The  State  institution  is  doing  special  work 
in  the  direction  of  eradicating  tuberculosis  and  other 
diseases  of  farm  animals,  and  also  in  suppressing  vari- 
ous kinds  of  insect  and  vegetable  pests. 

As  SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION. 

As  I  hold  it  unreasonable  to  imagine  or  to  claim 
that  the  colleges  can  teach  in  the  classroom  anything 
that  is  of  practical  use  to  the  farmer,  I  believe  I  am 
justified  in  the  opinion  that  the  farmers  who  speak 
well  of  these  colleges  do  so  because  they  consider  them 
disseminators  of  helpful  information.  They,  like  my- 
self, place  little  or  no  value  on  the  agricultural  college 
as  a  place  where  boys  may  be  taught  practical  farming. 

Coming  back  to  the  farmers'  letters,  I  find  that  the 
benefits  said  to  have  been  derived  from  the  colleges 
fall  almost  wholly  into  the  following  five  classifica- 
tions :  Rotation  of  crops,  fertilizing,  cultivation,  study 
and  selection  of  seeds,  and  care  and  feeding  of  stock. 

As  the  assertion  is  made  in  nearly  all  of  the  favor- 
able responses  that  the  benefits  were  received  through 
bulletins  and  lectures,  I  naturally  tried  to  discover  the 
character  of  these  sources  of  information  and  help. 

As  I  could  not  secure  the  lectures  I  was  obliged  to 
confine  my  search  to  the  bulletins;  but  I  "assume  that 
the  lectures  cover  nothing  that  has  not  been  published 
in  the  bulletins. 

For  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  what  information 
the  bulletins  give  on  these  special  subjects,  I  have  gone 
carefully  over  the  bulletins  issued  by  the  Michigan 
station  for  1905  and  1907;  by  the  Wisconsin  station 
for  1905  and  1906;  eleven  unbound  bulletins  issued  by 
Wisconsin  at  various  dates;  and  twenty-five  bulletins 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      283 

and  circulars  sent  out  by  the  agricultural  college  of  the 
University  of  Illinois  —  comprising  in  all  some  3,200 
pages  of  printed  matter. 

I  have  not  found  in  the  Michigan  and  Wisconsin 
reports  a  single  bulletin  that  gives  fully  important 
information  regarding  the  rotation  of  crops,  cultivation, 
or  fertilizers.  There  is  incidental  mention  of  these  sub- 
jects scattered  through  the  various  bulletins  and  in 
accounts  of  experiments  statements  are  made  as  to 
fertilizers  used,  but  nowhere  is  the  information  given 
concisely  and  by  itself. 

SOMETHING  ABOUT  FERTILIZING. 

The  Illinois  reports  show  that  the  problem  of  per- 
manently maintaining  the  fertility  of  the  soil  is  being 
studied  and  that  in  their  experiments  they  have  found 
that  by  employing  certain  systems  of  farming  and 
using  phosphorus  as  a  fertilizer  (they  recommend  rock 
phosphorus)  yields  can  be  profitably  increased  and  soil 
fertility  maintained. 

These  results,  however,  must  be  looked  upon  as 
experimental  until  it  can  be  shown  that  the  ordinary 
farmer  by  utilizing  the  information  given  in  the  bulle- 
tins has  been  enabled  to  make  his  farm  more  profitable. 
Results  obtained  in  actual  practice  would  be  much  more 
convincing  than  those  obtained  in  experiments. 

As  to  the  care  and  feeding  of  stock,  some  of  the 
bulletins  have  gone  quite  elaborately  into  this,  and 
figures  are  given  to  show  how  much  better  results  have 
been  obtained  from  certain  methods  of  feeding  and 
from  certain  feeds ;  but  nowhere  in  the  350  odd  pages 
I  have  read  do  we  find  reduced  to  a  few  simple  rules, 
that  could  be  understood  and  followed  by  the  ordinary 
farmer,  information  that  would  enable  him  without 


284     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

expensive  experiments  on  his  part  to  raise  and  fatten 
stock  for  the  lowest  possible  price  per  hundred  pounds. 

As  different  feeds  are  used  in  States  producing  the 
same  crops,  it  is  apparent  that  feeding  is  largely  a  mat- 
ter of  individual  judgment  and  local  conditions  as  to 
relative  price  of  foods,  etc. 

There  is  a  needless  amount  of  detail  and  over- 
refinement  in  the  published  reports  of  the  experiments 
that  can  be  of  no  practical  value  and  which  serve  only 
to  confuse. 

FEEDING  STOCK  SPECIAL  BUSINESS. 

In  any  event,  the  feeding  of  cattle  has  come  to  be 
largely  a  special  business ;  that  is,  men  now  make  a 
business  of  buying  cattle  and  fattening  them  for  the 
market,  and  I  doubt  whether  any  information  can  be 
supplied  that  would  be  of  any  special  assistance  to 
them  in  this  matter.  Their  interest  in  this  matter  is  so 
great  that  they  naturally  would  get  the  best  results,  so 
that  there  could  be  nothing  about  which  the  colleges 
would  be  able  to  give  them  information. 

As  convincing  proof  that  the  farmers  who  answer 
"  Yes  "  to  my  first  question  estimate  the  agricultural 
colleges  almost  solely  as  distributors  of  information, 
and  not  as  makers  of  practical  farmers,  I  refer  to  their 
answers  touching  the  employment  of  college-trained 
men  on  their  farms  and  to  the  sending  of  their  children 
to  these  colleges  to  be  trained  as  farmers. 

Of  the  sixty-eight  who  said  they  had  not  been 
benefited  by  the  colleges,  nine  say  they  have  employed 
college  graduates  on  their  farms  and  that  they  all  had 
proved  to  be  unsatisfactory. 

Of  the  ninety-five  who  are  favorable  to  agricultural 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      285 

colleges,  eleven  have  employed  such  help,  and  three  of 
these  say  that  this  help  has  not  been  satisfactory. 

With  reference  to  the  question  of  sending  their 
children  to  the  agricultural  colleges,  only  five  out  of  the 
ninety-five  who  are  in  favor  of  the  colleges  have  done 
this. 

Among  those  unfavorable  to  the  colleges,  three  sent 
their  children  to  an  agricultural  college,  and  in  two  of 
these  cases  they  report  that  the  result  was  not  satis- 
factory. 

Is  it  not  strikingly  inconsistent  that  so  few  of  those 
who  favor  the  colleges  either  have  employed  college 
graduates  or  have  sent  their  children  to  college  ? 

Among  the  farmers  favoring  agricultural  colleges  a 
number  went  out  of  their  way  to  say  a  good  word  for 
these  institutions  as  being  dispensers  of  higher  ideas, 
etc.,  but  none  of  these  claims  has  any  particular  bearing 
on  the  subject  of  my  investigation. 

WHAT  THE  "  No's "  HAVE  TO  SAY. 

It  is  evident  from  the  letters  received  that  the 
farmers  answering  "  No  "  to  the  general  proposition 
< —  68  out  of  163  —  are  just  as  positive  that  their  posi- 
tion on  this  question  is  right  as  are  those  who  have 
answered  "  Yes." 

In  fact,  among  the  negative  responses  are  some  who 
go  so  far  as  to  say  that  these  colleges  actually  do  harm ; 
that  young  men  turned  out  by  them  are  not  as  good 
farmers  as  the  young  men  who  get  all  their  training  on 
the  farm.  Here  are  a  few  of  these  opinions : 

One  writer  says  he  sent  one  of  his  sons  to  Agri- 
cultural College,  Michigan,  and  in  answer  to  my  ques- 
tion, "  Do  you  feel  that  he  has  been  benefited  by  such 
experience  ?  "  answers :  "  Yes.  It  could  hardly  be 


286     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

otherwise;  but  equal  benefits  could  have  been  derived 
at  our  home  town  at  less  cost.  The  agriculture  taught 
at  the  college  is  not  and  never  can  be  the  husbandry  of 
the  farm." 

Another  writes :  "  We  thought  of  sending  a  boy, 
but  before  we  got  ready  a  neighbor  sent  a  boy,  and  he 
has  come  home.  You  should  see  his  farming!  It 
surely  did  not  do  him  any  good.  Another  neighbor's 
boy  went.  He  has  come  home  a  first-class  farmer; 
but  he  was  good  when  he  went  away,  and  so  was  his 
father." 

Another  suggests :  "  I  should  say  a  boy  had  better 
go  to  some  good  school  and  graduate ;  then  go  to  the 
best  farmer  he  can  find  and  tell  him  he  wants  to  learn 
to  farm,  and  ask  for  a  job.  Try  him  six  months,  and 
if  he  does  not  think  his  employer  is  up  to  date  and  he 
could  get  more  from  another,  hire  to  him.  I  should 
say  that  a  three-years'  course  like  this,  working  on  an 
average  one  year  for  each  farmer,  should  round  a 
young  man  up  in  pretty  good  shape  to  begin  for  him- 
self." 

Still  another  says:  "The  dean  of  the  Wisconsin 
Agricultural  College  advised  my  neighbor  not  to  take 
a  course  there  unless  he  wished  to  become  a  teacher. 
This  does  not  refer  to  the  experimental  station." 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  THINGS. 

In  order  to  avoid  confusion  I  would  remind  my 
readers  that  I  started  out  in  this  investigation  to  dis- 
cover what  the  agricultural  colleges  were  doing  along 
the  important  lines  of  rotation  of  crops,  fertilizing,  and 
cultivation,  as  I  regard  these  as  being  the  fundamental 
features  of  practical  general  farming. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      287 

It  will  be  seen  from  what  I  have  said  here  that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  college  bulletins  on  these  topics 
(which  cover  ninety  per  cent  of  all)  that  is  of  any  im- 
portance to  the  farmer,  notwithstanding  the  enormous 
amount  of  writing  and  printing  the  colleges  have  done 
on  these  subjects. 

THE  SHORT  AGRICULTURAL  COURSE  FAILS  TO  JUSTIFY 
ITS  CLAIMS. 

In  introducing  this  topic  I  dismissed  the  full  or 
regular  course  of  the  agricultural  college  as  being  so 
completely  ridiculous  and  impractical  that  I  would  not 
discuss  it.  The  short  or  special  courses  of  these  col- 
leges, however,  appear  to  appeal  to  many  as  having 
some  value,  and  for  this  reason  I  shall  consider  them. 

In  the  short  and  special  courses  the  colleges  say  in 
effect  to  the  farmer :  "  Here  is  an  assortment  of  prac- 
tical things.  Among  them  you'll  find  something  you 
need.  Take  your  choice." 

This  sounds  very  fascinating.  But  if  the  colleges 
have  these  things  to  offer,  they  also  should  have  the 
intelligence  to  know  whether  or  not  the  farmer  really 
needs  all  or  any  of  them  to  make  him  practical  and 
successful. 

They  also  should  know  whether  the  farmer  is  cor- 
rect in  fancying  that  he  does  need  something  from  the 
college,  and  whether  he  can  get  anything  of  practical 
advantage  from  the  college,  should  he  take  one  or  more 
of  the  short  or  special  courses. 

For  example :  I  have  seen  a  picture  of  an  audience 
of  2,000  farmers  listening  to  a  lecture  on  tuberculosis. 
The  professors  are  in  the  act  of  dissecting  the  animal 
to  show  the  disease.  Can  anyone  imagine  a  more 
stupid  piece  of  business  than  for  the  professors  to 


288     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

invite  the  farmers  to  leave  their  work  to  come  and 
look  at  this  operation?  What  do  you  suppose  the 
farmer  would  know  about  this  after  the  lecture?  Is 
he  to  cut  up  his  animals?  He  wants  to  know  how  to 
judge  them  without  doing  this.  Such  lectures  and 
demonstrations  are  purely  matters  for  veterinary  stu- 
dents. 

Some  of  these  short  courses  consist  of  teaching 
boys  how  to  select  corn  for  seed;  others  teach  them 
how  to  lay  tile  for  drains ;  others  how  to  judge  stock. 
All  of  this  is  perfectly  stupid,  and  it  is  an  outrage  to 
call  farm  lads  from  their  work  to  teach  them  things 
that  they  know  as  much  about  as  the  colleges.  This  is 
a  fair  specimen  of  the  way  the  farmers  are  deceived 
and  humbugged  by  the  colleges. 

WHAT  DOES  THE  FARMER  NEED? 

The  important  point  just  here  is :  What  or  who  is 
going  to  settle  correctly  whether  the  farmer  actually 
does  need  the  aid  of  the  colleges?  The  mere  fact  that 
here  and  there  a  farmer  imagines  he  does  need  this 
help,  or  is  persuaded  that  he  does  through  the  attrac- 
tive arguments  of  the  colleges,  is  no  evidence  that  he 
actually  does  need  college  assistance. 

The  fact  that  any  feature  of  education  is  in 
demand  is  no  evidence  that  it  has  merit.  The  mere 
fact  that  many  people  go  to  the  higher  schools  is  no 
evidence  whatever  that  they  are  benefited  by  these 
schools,  because  they  have  no  means  of  judging 
whether  what  they  learn  in  the  schools  is  going  to  be 
beneficial  to  them.  In  their  inexperience  they  go  to  the 
schools  on  account  of  the  general  public  clamor,  and 
because  of  the  men  who  are  at  the  head  of  these  insti- 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      289 

tutions.    They  have  no  knowledge  whatever  that  they 
are  benefited  by  the  schools. 

THE  POINT  FOR  COMPARISON. 

What  I  have  already  said  along  this  line  in  Part 
One  regarding  "  higher  education  "  generally  applies 
equally  to  agricultural  schools. 

The  point  as  to  whether  the  farmer  actually  needs 
the  help  of  these  short  and  special  courses  can  be  deter- 
mined best  by  looking  over  what  the  colleges  offer  in 
this  line,  and  comparing  what  these  courses  offer  to 
teach  with  the  practical  working  of  the  farm. 

In  looking  over  Bulletin  No.  140,  General  Series 
No.  79,  issued  by  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  being, 
"  a  circular  of  information  relating  to  the  short  course 
in  agriculture,"  I  find  this  course  covers  the  following 
lines  of  instruction: 

BREEDS  OF  LIVE  STOCK:     BREEDING,  JUDGING,  CARE 
AND  MANAGEMENT. 

This  appears  to  be  a  two  years'  course.  As  I 
understand  it,  the  breeding  of  any  animal  to  a  large 
extent  is  systematic  and  skilled  work,  and  to  get  results 
something  beyond  the  ordinary  in  this  direction,  the 
work  must  be  conducted  by  a  person  who  has  extraor- 
dinary judgment,  a  great  deal  of  experience,  and  who 
has  made  a  thorough  study  of  what  has  become  a 
special  business. 

Of  course,  every  farmer  knows  enough  to  select 
his  best  stock  for  breeding  purposes  and  to  keep  the 
best  stock  in  his  herds.  I  maintain,  therefore,  that  this 
course  offers  nothing  practical  to  the  ordinary  farmer. 

19 


290     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

FEEDS  AND  FEEDING. 

This  also  is  a  two  years'  course.  In  it  the  college 
seems  to  have  gone  into  the  greatest  refinement,  taking 
in  such  matters  as  digestion,  etc. 

I  have  looked  over  a  book  of  six  hundred  pages 
(one  of  a  dozen  or  more  text-books  used  by  the  col- 
lege in  the  short  courses)  entitled,  "  Feeds  and  Feed- 
ing," by  Prof.  W.  A.  Henry,  of  the  University  of 
Wisconsin.  The  author  has  gone  into  the  subject  with 
such  complication  and  refinement  that  I  question  if 
one  farmer  in  a  thousand  would  be  able  to  get  any 
practical  information  out  of  it. 

This  book  is  a  good  deal  in  the  nature  of  what 
comes  from  this  class  of  writers.  They  go  so  far  in 
their  explanation  of  the  various  phases  of  the  subject 
and  one  has  to  wade  through  such  an  immense  amount 
of  immaterial  matter  that  it  is  difficult  to  find  out  the 
points  they  are  trying  to  make. 

ONE  USELESS  BOOK. 

Common  sense  warrants  the  conclusion  that  this 
book  is  a  pronounced  failure,  so  far  as  conveying  any 
information  of  value  to  the  farmer  is  concerned.  In 
fact,  the  ordinary  farmer  would  get  as  much  out  of 
it  if  it  were  written  in  Latin. 

The  book  gives  the  results  of  certain  combinations 
of  feed,  which  may  have  some  value  to  the  farmer 
after  he  has  figured  out  and  determined  by  actual 
experiment  which  feeds  he  can  use  to  the  best  advan- 
tage. 

The  book  shows  that  in  some  parts  of  the  country 
one  feed  combination  is  used  to  advantage,  while  in 
other  parts  of  the  country,  raising  similar  feed  crops,  a 
different  combination  is  used. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     291 

It  seems  strange  that  some  one  has  not  determined 
which  combination  will  produce  the  best  results.  It 
stands  to  reason  that  something  could  be  done  toward 
making  this  clear  and  getting  some  practical  results 
from  it ;  but  we  don't  need  a  book  of  any  six  hundred 
pages,  either  to  show  us  how  or  to  tell  us  when  it  is 
discovered. 

VETERINARY  SCIENCE. 

I  shall  pass  this  with  the  simple  observation  that 
no  ordinary  farmer  expects  to  be  a  veterinarian. 
Naturally  there  are  many  small  matters  in  reference 
to  taking  care  of  animals  when  they  are  sick,  for  which 
a  brief  bulletin  might  be  of  value  to  the  farmer;  but 
this  is  as  far  as  the  ordinary  farmer  can  be  expected  to 
go  in  veterinary  science. 

SOILS. 

This  also  is  a  two  years'  course,  and  it  is  treated 
exhaustively.  In  my  judgment,  this  is  a  matter  from 
which  the  experimental  stations  might  get  good  results, 
but  that  it  is  not  a  matter  for  the  farmer  to  go  into 
at  all. 

PLANT  LIFE  AND  HORTICULTURE. 

This  requires  a  two  years*  course.  The  text-books 
arc  rather  exhaustive  treatises  on  a  great  variety  of 
subjects  connected  with  plants.  The  course  might  be 
interesting  to  a  gardener,  but  it  is  nothing  for  the 
farmer. 

FARM  DAIRYING. 

Butter  and  cheese  making  have  become  very  largely 
specialized  businesses,  and  no  doubt  they  have  received 
the  skill  and  study  that  every  large  business  receives. 


292     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

It  is  highly  improbable  that  schools  could  give  those 
engaged  in  these  lines  any  information;  and  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  assume  that  a  person  wishing  to  learn  butter 
and  cheese  making  would  go  to  one  of  the  factories, 
where  he  not  only  could  learn  the  business  from  trained 
men,  but  at  the  same  time  would  be  earning  wages. 
The  rest  of  this  course  is  covered  in  my  comments  on 
"  Feeds  and  Feeding/' 

As  to  the  general  care  of  stock,  cleanliness,  etc.,  all 
of  which  affect  the  quality  and  purity  of  milk,  the 
farmer  needs  nothing  more  than  the  requirements  of 
the  contracts  he  signs  with  the  management  of  the 
creameries  to  which  he  sells  milk. 

AGRICULTURAL  CHEMISTRY. 

The  colleges  have  gone  into  this  subject  systemat- 
ically, and,  while  it  may  have  some  advantages  for 
those  making  an  exhaustive  study  of  agriculture,  it 
is  positively  of  no  use  to  the  farmer. 

BACTERIOLOGY. 

This  is  about  as  valuable  as  chemistry  to  the  ordi- 
nary farmer. 

FARM   BOOKKEEPING  AND  BUSINESS  ACCOUNTS. 

It  is  probably  a  good  thing  for  the  farmer  to  have 
some  system  of  keeping  accounts,  so  that  he  may  know 
what  each  field  produces  and  also  what  each  crop  costs, 
taking  into  consideration  interest,  taxes,  cost  of  fenc- 
ing, etc.,  and  also  the  cost  of  maintaining  the  fertility 
of  the  soil. 

To  determine  this  latter  matter  with  accuracy,  the 
farmer  must  not  rob  the  soil  of  its  fertility  for  the 
benefit  of  one  crop  at  the  loss  of  a  succeeding  crop. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     293 

Doubtless,  this  is  a  pretty  nice  question  for  the  ordi- 
nary farmer  to  settle,  and  it  would  be  interesting  if  it 
could  be  made  clear  to  him  just  how  to  do  it. 

AGRICULTURAL  ECONOMICS. 

In  this  subject  refinement  of  treatment  is  carried 
to  great  length.  Yet  it  is  much  in  line  with  what  I 
have  said  on  bookkeeping  —  that  is,  it  aims  to  teach 
the  farmer  how  to  find  out  what  crops  pay  him  best. 
But  the  difficulty  must  be  apparent  of  any  one  being 
able  to  convey  clear-cut  information  on  this  subject 
that  would  be  practically  valuable  to  the  farmer. 

Farm  products  vary  considerably  at  different  times. 
One  year  may  bring  a  big  crop  at  a  low  price ;  but  this 
is  no  reason  why  the  farmer  should  not  raise  any  of 
this  crop  the  next  year.  To  go  into  this  matter  as  the 
college  proposes  in  its  bulletin  would  lead  to  an  enor- 
mous amount  of  complication,  and  I  am  convinced 
that  nothing  practical  could  come  of  it. 

If  a  soil  becomes  exhausted  from  producing  a  par- 
ticular crop,  but  is  good  for  some  other  crop,  every 
farmer  knows  enough  to  make  the  change  without 
being  told.  If  a  pest  destroys  a  certain  crop,  it  would 
be  folly  for  the  farmer  to  fight  the  pest ;  he  should  pro- 
duce a  crop  that  would  not  be  attacked  by  that  particu- 
lar pest.  These  are  features  of  agricultural  economics 
in  which  the  farmer  needs  no  college  instruction. 

FARM  CROPS. 

On  this  topic  the  circular  says  the  object  of  the 
course  is  "  to  fit  students  to  judge  samples  of  grains  in 
a  systematic  manner.  Best  methods  of  testing  the 
seed,  planting,  cultivating  and  curing  crops  are  dis- 
cussed." 


294      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

I  maintain  the  farmer  is  able  to  see  without  going 
to  college  whether  a  potato  is  big  and  clean,  the  size 
of  an  ear  of  corn,  and  of  the  kernels  on  the  ear.  The 
farmer  always  has  selected  the  best  of  his  crops  for 
seed.  He  doesn't  need  to  be  told  to  do  this  or  how  to 
do  it.  These  are  perfectly  obvious  things,  and  so  this 
course  seems  to  me  to  be  unnecessary. 

AGRICULTURAL  ENGINEERING,  PRACTICAL 
MECHANICS. 

Agricultural  engineering  embraces  architecture.  I 
do  not  think  there  is  anything  to  be  gained  by  teaching 
farmers  architecture.  This  is  a  matter  for  the  architect 
or  builder,  and  all  farming  communities  probably  are 
well  supplied  with  such  talent. 

When  it  comes  to  machinery,  the  college  is  really 
getting  down  to  something  in  which  it  might  do  some 
good.  This  is  something  that  meets  with  my  hearty 
approval,  and  there  is  no  doubt  it  would  pay  the  farm 
boy  to  take  a  year's  course  in  practical  mechanics.  I 
hold,  however,  that  training  in  such  lines  —  manual, 
etc.,  —  should  be  given  in  every  district  school,  and 
that  if  this  were  done  properly,  there  would  be  no 
occasion  to  send  a  boy  to  college  for  simple  mechanical 
instruction. 

Doubtless,  though,  it  would  be  a  good  and  useful 
thing,  if  these  colleges,  in  their  mechanical  courses, 
would  devote  themselves  to  the  making  of  teachers  who 
would  be  fully  competent  to  go  into  the  district  schools 
of  the  country  and  instruct  farmers'  boys  in  manual 
training  and  elementary  mechanics. 

NOTHING  PRACTICAL  OFFERED. 
Thus  I  have  passed  briefly  through  the  short  and 
special  courses.     Looking  at  the  whole  subject  from 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     295 

the  common-sense,  practical  point  of  view,  I  insist  that 
there  is  nothing  offered  in  any  one  or  all  of  these 
courses  of  any  real  practical  value  to  the  farmer. 

Everything  that  the  colleges  issue  is  altogether  too 
voluminous,  too  technical,  and  goes  too  much  into 
largely  inconsequential  matter,  such  as  the  details  of 
tinfinished  experiments  and  the  complete  report  of 
experiments  with  no  results. 

It  is  encouraging  to  note  that  after  the  University 
of  Wisconsin  has  issued  tons  of  this  valueless  printed 
matter  and  taken  up  the  time  of  thousands  of  farmers 
to  read  these  pamphlets  with  no  results,  it  now  sees 
and  acknowledges  the  stupidity  of  its  former  practice, 
announcing  that  hereafter  "  more  emphasis  will  be 
given  to  the  presentation  of  the  practical  results  ob- 
tained from  the  experimental  work." 

AN  OVERSUPPLY  OF  LITERATURE. 

But  why  have  colleges  to  do  even  this  publishing? 
This  country  is  enormously  supplied  with  agricultural 
literature.  In  fact,  I  consider  this  matter  is  vastly 
overdone  already.  The  farmer  is  overburdened  with 
standard  and  modern  agricultural  books,  college  and 
experimental  station  bulletins,  magazines,  farm  papers, 
and  weekly  newspapers.  Consequently  there  is  no  rea- 
son why  the  colleges  should  add  to  the  volume  of 
printed  matter  —  admitting,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
they  have  anything  worth  adding. 

The  great  trouble  with  writers  on  educational  topics 
is  that  they  do  not  seem  to  have  any  idea  of  econ- 
omizing in  words  or  time.  To  my  mind,  there  is 
nothing  so  clearly  shows  the  stupidity  of  most  writers 
on  economic  subjects  as  the  lack  of  economy  they 
show  by  using  too  many  words.  They  seem  to  have 


296     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

nothing    of    importance   to    say,    and    to   hide    their 
ignorance  they  smother  it  with  words. 

THE  TRAINING  OF  TEACHERS. 

The  colleges  may  claim  that  though  certain  things 
they  teach  may  be  of  no  direct  practical  use  to  the 
ordinary  farmer,  yet  they  are  needed  in  the  training  of 
teachers.  But  why  instruct  teachers  of  agriculture 
how  to  impart  information  that  the  farmer  neither 
wants  nor  needs? 

The  colleges  can  find  out  readily  from  their  grad- 
uates what  benefits  they  have  derived  from  a  college 
education,  and  certainly  these  colleges  are  not  war- 
ranted in  continuing  their  work  unless  they  have  clear 
and  positive  evidence  that  the  results  are  beneficial. 

I  maintain  that  it  is  distinctly  wrong  for  any  edu- 
cational institution  to  take  a  man's  time  and  money 
in  teaching  him  a  lot  of  things  that  are  of  no  piactical 
value  to  him. 

Educators  should  be  absolutely  sure  on  such  points 
before  encouraging  young  men  to  take  a  course  in  col- 
lege, whether  that  course  be  long  or  short,  thick  or 
thin. 

EXPERIMENTAL  STATIONS. 

Before  summing  up  this  feature  of  agricultural 
education,  I  wish  to  refer  briefly  to  the  experimental 
stations  that  are  conducted  generally  in  connection  with 
the  State  agricultural  colleges. 

Much  of  the  matter  that  I  have  been  commenting 
on  comes  from  the  experimental  station,  and  conse- 
quently the  experimental  station  fails  to  be  of  real 
practical  service  in  about  the  same  measure  as  the 
college  does. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     297 

ANALYSIS  OF  BULLETINS. 

I  shall  make  brief  reference  to  a  few  of  the  bulle- 
tins on  experimental  work  that  I  have  not  mentioned 
previously : 

ON  MILK.  There  is  a  large  number  of  bulletins 
on  milk.  One  deals  with  "  The  Associative  Action  of 
Bacteria  in  the  Souring  of  Milk "  —  eighteen  pages 
telling  scientifically  how  milk  sours,  but  not  one  word 
telling  practically  how  to  keep  milk  from  souring. 
Summed  up,  these  bulletins  say  to  the  farmer:  Keep 
the  cows  free  from  tuberculosis ;  be  clean.  This  whole 
talk  on  milk  is  simply  a  jumble  of  scientific  terms  and 
hair-splitting  theories. 

In  short,  from  the  amount  of  stuff  the  experimental 
stations  have  published  on  milk,  we  would  suppose  it 
was  an  entirely  new  product.  Yet  I  can  remember  that 
when  I  was  a  boy,  the  farmers'  wives  had  good  milk. 
They  knew  how  to  keep  the  pans  sweet  and  clean,  how 
to  gather  the  cream,  how  to  keep  the  milk  cool  and 
sweet  in  the  cellar,  how  to  make  the  best  of  butter. 
How  in  the  world  could  they  have  done  these  simple 
things  without  the  aid  of  experimental  stations,  agri- 
cultural colleges  and  bulletins  ? 

DRAINAGE.  This  bulletin  doubtless  contains  infor- 
mation of  some  value,  but  the  subject  is  well  under- 
stood among  farmers.  The  experimental  station 
appears  simply  to  have  handed  down  old  information 
that  was  fully  published  in  books  many  years  ago.  As 
nothing  new  is  said,  there  was  no  need  for  this  print- 
ing. 

PESTS.  A  great  deal  is  said  about  pests,  both  those 
that  attack  farm  animals  and  those  that  destroy  grain 
and  fruit  crops.  Some  of  these  are  proper  studies  for 


298     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

experimental  farms  or  for  the  State,  particularly  the 
pests  affecting  animals.  As  for  the  pests  attacking 
crops,  the  bulletins  I  have  read  deal  chiefly  with  pro- 
posed weapons  for  combating  the  insects  and  fungi 
that  attack  the  apple-tree.  They  deal  with  a  great 
variety  of  pests,  and  tell  how  to  detect  them  at  differ- 
ent stages.  The  language  may  be  considered  highly 
technical,  and,  perhaps,  scientific,  and  I  consider  it 
most  absurd  to  send  out  such  literature  to  the  ordinary 
farmer.  Nothing  practical  can  come  from  it.  It 
would  be  far  better  to  advise  the  farmer  that  if  pests 
attack  his  apple  crop,  to  let  the  apple  business  alone  and 
devote  his  energies  to  some  more  profitable  crop. 

AN  UNNECESSARY  EXPENSE. 

ALFALFA  IN  MICHIGAN.  This  bulletin  takes  ten 
pages  to  tell  of  experiments  in  growing  alfalfa  in 
Michigan,  in  which  the  experimental  station  cooperated 
with  some  eighty  farmers  in  various  parts  of  the 
State.  The  outcome  was  the  conclusion  that  alfalfa 
was  a  failure  in  that  State.  Why  didn't  the  experi- 
mental station  find  this  out  itself,  and  not  put  the 
farmers  to  trouble,  expense  and  loss? 

SUBSTATION  OF  UPPER  MICHIGAN.  This  appears 
to  have  been  established  to  show  that  hundreds  of 
experiments  in  farming  the  cleared  northern  timber 
lands  produced  practically  the  same  results.  The  sta- 
tion might  have  shown  whether  there  was  profit  in 
such  farming,  and  thus  have  given  us  something  new ; 
but  it  didn't  do  anything  of  the  kind. 

ROADMAKING.  A  bulletin  of  forty-eight  pages  on 
this  subject  comes  from  Wisconsin.  To  follow  out 
its  instructions  fully  would  require  a  machine  equip- 
ment that  no  ordinary  farming  section  could  afford. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      299 

The  bulletin  goes  into  all  phases  of  this  subject,  from 
corduroy  roads  to  macadam  and  park  boulevards.  It 
shoots  entirely  over  the  head  of  the  average  farmer. 
No  information  is  given  that  can  be  of  any  practical 
use  to  him. 

ON  SWINE.  Twenty-two  pages  on  pigs  and  pig- 
geries make  this  part  of  farming  seem  such  a  fine  art 
that  one  wonders  how  the  farmers  ever  managed  to 
raise  hogs  before. 

PROMINENCE  OF  THE  IMPRACTICABLE. 

There  are  a  great  many  other  bulletins  on  various 
subjects,  but  none  of  them  contains  any  practical  infor- 
mation of  value  to  the  farmer.  I  think  I  have  now 
given  enough  to  this  subject  to  convince  my  readers 
of  the  impracticability  of  everything  coming  from  these 
experimental  stations. 

I  do  not  wholly  condemn  experimental  stations,  but 
I  can  see  nothing  coming  from  them  to  warrant  their 
existence  as  they  are  managed  now.  It  appears  to  me 
reasonable  that  each  State  government  (especially  in 
the  Western  country)  should  have  an  experimental 
farm  in  charge  of  a  practical  farmer  of  sound  judg- 
ment and  wide  experience,  to  be  on  the  lookout  for 
new  lines  of  agricultural  products  and  to  test  them 
with  a  view  to  determining  their  value  to  that  particu- 
lar part  of  the  country. 

But  one  good  man  for  each  State  could  do  all  that 
is  necessary  in  this  direction  —  and  he  would  not  need 
to  be  a  college  man  either. 

Whatever  of  practical  value  to  the  farming  com- 
munity the  experimental  stations  may  have  given,  it 
seems  absurd  to  me  that  the  agricultural  colleges 
should  claim  any  credit  for  it.  From  the  first  this  has 


300     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING, 

been  Government  work,  and  doubtless  the  great  bulk 
of  any  results  thus  far  attained  should  be  credited  to 
the  agricultural  department  of  the  general  Government. 

SOME  EXTRAVAGANT  CLAIMS. 

We  are  continually  seeing  extravagant  assertions 
in  the  papers  as  to  the  great  things  the  agricultural 
colleges  and  their  students  are  doing  by  way  of  improv- 
ing the  condition  of  farms  and  farm  products ;  but 
after  the  closest  observation  and  care  in  reading  hun- 
dreds of  the  college  bulletins,  I  do  not  find  a  single 
clear-cut  case  where  they  have  made  an  important 
discovery  or  an  improvement  in  anything. 

I  believe  now  I  have  covered  all  the  points  neces- 
sary to  strike  a  fair  estimate  of  the  value  of  agricul- 
tural education  to  the  farmer  and  to  the  State. 

I  have  shown  what  these  institutions  have  cost  to 
establish  and  what  it  costs  to  maintain  them.  I  have 
given  a  statement  from  a  college  professor  setting  forth 
what  the  colleges  aim  to  do.  I  have  given  the  results 
of  an  inquiry  as  to  what  the  farmers  think  of  these 
colleges.  I  have  pointed  out  the  utter  absurdity  of  the 
college  claim  that  the  long  course  —  meaning,  practi- 
cally, four  years  in  high  school  and  four  years  in  col- 
lege—  is  needed  to  make  good  ordinary  farmers.  I 
have  shown  that  the  ordinary  farmer  has  no  need  for 
any  one  or  all  of  the  so-called  short  or  special  courses. 
I  have  analyzed  enough  of  the  agricultural  bulletins  to 
strike  a  reasonable  average.  And  I  have  expressed 
my  doubts  as  to  the  real  utility  even  of  the  experi- 
mental station. 

All  in  the  way  of  education  that  it  is  necessary  for 
a  farm  lad  to  have  to  make  him  a  successful,  up-to-date 
farmer  could  be  given  in  the  schools  of  the  country 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     301 

districts  at  but  a  trifling  additional  increase  of  the 
present  common-school  tax.  Let  every  district  school 
have  a  good  teacher  of  manual  training  and  element- 
ary mechanics  for  the  boys  and  a  good  teacher  of  the 
domestic  arts  —  cooking,  sewing,  etc.,  for  the  girls  — 
and  the  taxpayer  would  be  getting  something  worth 
while  for  the  small  added  tax.  Let  this  be  done  well 
first.  Make  the  foundation  sound  and  broad. 

SOMETHING  TO  BE  TAUGHT. 

Surely  it  is  vastly  more  important  to  teach  farmers 
how  to  take  care  of  themselves  than  to  teach  them  how 
to  fatten  cattle,  feed  horses  and  raise  hogs.  Teach 
the  farm  boys  and  girls  in  the  common  schools  how  to 
make  better  and  more  comfortable  homes,  how  to  do 
better  cooking,  how  to  use  their  heads  and  hands  to 
much  more  general  advantage.  Teach  them  more  of 
these  simple,  practical,  needful  things,  and  no  one  need 
worry  about  their  learning  all  the  practical  agriculture 
they  require  right  on  the  farm. 

I  wish  here  to  repeat  that  I  am  not  opposed  to  edu- 
cation, but  only  to  its  useless  and  extravagant  frills 
and  fads.  I  am  most  decidedly  a  champion  of  that 
education  which,  first,  aids  a  man  in  earning  a  liveli- 
hood, and  so  contributes  to  his  own  happiness;  and 
second,  makes  of  him  a  good  citizen,  and  thus  con- 
tributes to  the  happiness  of  others. 

EDUCATION  THE  FARMER  NEEDS. 

The  education  the  farmer  needs  to  meet  both  of 
these  essentials  he  should  get  in  the  country  common 
schools.  His  practical  education  he  may  get  best  — 
in  fact,  only  —  on  the  farm.  If  he  feels  that  he  wants 


302     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

more  than  this  he  should  not  expect  the  public  to  pay 
for  it. 

The  agricultural  college,  thus  far  at  least,  has  been 
the  fifth  wheel  to  the  farmer's  wagon,  and  it  has  cost 
him  a  pretty  penny  to  keep  it  going.  Until  the  farmer 
or  the  agricultural  college  can  show  definite  and  really 
valuable  results  coming  from  the  agricultural  education 
of  to-day,  common  sense  and  sound  business  judgment 
must  place  it  among  the  fallacies  of  our  complicated 
"  higher  "  educational  machinery. 


CHAPTER    XL 

HOW  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN 
DEFRAUDS  THE  STATE. 

The  substance  of  what  I  have  said  thus  far  on 
agricultural  colleges  was  published  about  a  year  ago, 
and  I  was  under  the  impression  that  after  such  pub- 
licity these  institutions  would  be  a  trifle  more  modest 
in  their  claims.  This,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  the  case,  if  one  may  judge  from  several  articles 
printed  recently  in  newspapers  and  magazines. 

I  think  that  in  the  foregoing  pages  on  this  subject 
I  have  made  it  clear  that  the  University  of  Wisconsin 
—  like  practically  all  of  the  higher  educational  institu- 
tions —  is  a  great  fraud  and  an  imposition  on  the  pub- 
lic. All  these  institutions  resort  to  an  immense  amount 
of  deception,  but  none  of  them,  so  far  as  I  know,  can 
be  compared  with  the  university  at  Madison  in  its  bare- 
faced misrepresentation  of  facts. 

While  I  realize  that  this  is  pretty  strong  language, 
let  us  see  how  the  facts  bear  me  out. 

SOME  RECKLESS  STATEMENTS. 

I  quote  from  two  full-page  articles  in  the  Chicago 
Record-Herald,  of  July  n  and  18,  1909,  by  Mr. 
Charles  H.  Leichliter,  as  follows : 

Wisconsin  is  in  all  probability  the  one  State  in  the 
Union  whose  entire  population  "goes  to  cbllege."  That 
the  University  of  Wisconsin  literally  is  teaching  the 


304     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

entire  2,500,000  population  of  the  State  is  explained  by 
the  fact  that  it  has  an  exceptionally  well-developed  ex- 
tension course. 

And  again : 

In  1906  20,000,000  more  bushels  of  corn  were  produced 
by  the  State  than  in  1901,  on  the  same  area  of  ground. 
That  meant  easily  ten  millions  of  dollars  more  in  the 
pockets  of  the  farmers. 

Through  its  college  of  agriculture  Wisconsin  has  so 
educated  the  farmers  of  the  State  that  the  yield  of  bar- 
ley has  been  multiplied  in  the  past  five  or  six  years 
many  fold,  and  barley  development  of  the  State,  which 
consumes  so  much  of  that  grain,  is  only  beginning.  Pro- 
fessor Ransom  A.  Moore,  of  the  university,  estimates  that 
by  the  year  1912  approximately  50,000,000  bushels  will  be 
grown  in  the  State,  and  that  in  the  crops  for  the  follow- 
ing year,  if  the  experiments  now  being  carried  on  develop, 
as  the  light  of  past  experience  indicates  they  will,  Wiscon- 
sin will  be  able  to  produce  enough  barley  of  the  finest 
variety  to  plant  the  barley  acreage  of  the  world. 

The  ground  is  taken  that  this  university  is  entitled 
to  the  credit  for  this  increase  in  yield. 

In  going  into  the  subject  of  corn,  I  am  fortunate 
in  being  able  to  prove  that  this  university  is  misleading, 
by  its  own  records,  as  shown  in  its  reports ;  so  that  the 
public  can  not  accuse  me  of  being  prejudiced  or  unfair 
in  the  discussion  of  this  matter. 

We  will  now  see  what  this  experimental  station  has 
to  say  on  this  subject  in  its  annual  reports  of  1904  to 
1908,  inclusive. 

In  the  report  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1904,  the 
experimenters  give  an  account  of  their  work  with 
Silver  King  corn  on  eighteen  and  one-half  acres  of 
ground. 

I  have  no  reports  previous  to  this  year,  but  this 
appears  to  have  been  the  first  experiment  with  this  corn, 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     305 

as  this  report  makes  no  mention  of  any  previous  experi- 
ment. 

The  report  states  that  the  yield  obtained  was  72^ 
bushels  per  acre,  and  the  yield  of  seed  corn  was  12 
bushels.  It  has  no  remarks  to  make  of  any  impor- 
tance, however,  regarding  this  corn.  All  it  has  to  say 
is  that  certain  methods  of  planting  were  followed  and 
attention  was  given  to  the  question  of  suckers,  smut, 
etc. 

As  TO  YIELD  OF  CORN. 

Nothing  is  said  as  to  whether  the  yield  was  satis- 
factory, or  whether  it  was  better  than  the  yield  of  any 
other  corn. 

The  1905  report  shows  that  there  was  a  wide  varia- 
tion in  the  yield,  one  row  giving  a  yield  of  296  pounds, 
while  another  gave  only  29^  pounds.  There  was  also 
a  wide  difference  in  the  yield  of  select  seed  corn,  one 
row  giving  56  pounds,  while  another  gave  only  il/2 
pounds. 

The  total  yield  showed  a  variation  of  from  14  to 
97  bushels  per  acre  of  shelled  corn,  the  average  yield 
being  58^  bushels,  which,  it  will  be  noticed,  was  a 
marked  falling  off  in  production  from  the  average  of 
the  preceding  year  (72^  bushels). 

On  this  point  the  report  says :  "  The  continued 
cold,  wet  weather  following  planting,  acted  in  a  detri- 
mental way  to  the  growth  of  the  corn  and  in  some 
rows  only  a  partial  stand  was  secured." 

Still,  nothing  is  said  in  favor  of  this  Silver  King 
corn.  Also  this  report  does  not  give  the  amount  of 
seed  corn  produced. 

20 


306     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

REPORT  SHOWS  INCREASE. 

The  report  for  1906  says :  "  It  is  encouraging  to 
note  that  the  proportions  and  average  yields  of  seed 
corn  and  marketable  corn  have  been  materially 
increased  over  those  of  a  year  ago." 

The  report  also  states  that  the  average  yield  was 
75  bushels  per  acre,  which,  it  will  be  noted,  was  con- 
siderably more  than  the  preceding  year,  and  slightly 
greater  than  1904. 

This  report  also  says :  "  Not  all  the  increase  is 
due  to  the  selection  of  seed,  as  the  growing  season  in 
1906  was  more  favorable  and  the  plots  were  on  better 
soil.  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  the  increase  of 
seed  corn  is  greater  in  proportion  than  that  of  the 
nubbins." 

Again  I  quote  from  this  report :  "  The  results  for 
this  year  encourage  the  belief  that  constant  selection 
of  the  best  ears  from  the  best  rows  of  the  breeding 
plot  will  materially  increase  the  productiveness  and 
improve  the  quality  of  our  seed  corn." 

This,  of  course,  is  something  that  everyone  who 
is  at  all  acquainted  with  the  subject  knows,  and  it  is  a 
universal  practice. 

PLANTED  IN  BETTER  LAND. 

While  the  report  claims  a  slight  increase  in  yield, 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  it  states  that  the  corn  is  planted 
in  better  land.  Still  there  is  no  claim  as  to  the  supe- 
riority of  the  Silver  King  corn. 

From  the  report  of  1907,  it  seems  that  the  experi- 
menters planted  the  general  cornfield  of  eighteen  acres 
of  tested  seed  from  the  best  ears  in  the  previous  year's 
crop.  They  state  that  the  average  yield  was  63.8 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     307 

bushels  of  shelled  corn  per  acre,  which,  it  will  be  seen, 
was  going  backward  from  the  average  of  1906  (75 
bushels)  and  also  from  the  average  of  1904  report  of 
fj2l/2  bushels. 

It  is  surprising  that  this  report  gives  no  explana- 
tion of  this  falling  off.  The  only  thing  it  has  to  say 
on  this  subject  is  that  the  season  was  backward  in  the 
beginning,  but  afterward  they  had  good  corn  weather 
and  the  crop  matured  in  good  time. 

The  report  also  states  that  they  had  an  average 
stand  of  three  stalks  to  the  hill. 

I  again  notice  in  this  report  reference  to  the  great 
variation  in  the  production  of  different  rows,  run- 
ning from  83  pounds  to  269  pounds,  but  notwith- 
standing this  variation  the  claim  is  made  that  "  the 
difference  in  yield  of  seed  corn  and  total  yield  is  not 
so  great  this  year  as  in  previous  years'  tests,  as  through 
the  selection  method  of  breeding  practiced  the  corn 
has  become  more  uniform  and  stable  in  character." 

This  report  says  an  average  yield  of  seventeen  per 
cent  seed  ears  was  secured.  As  the  amount  of  seed  corn 
mentioned  in  the  1904  report  averaged  practically  the 
same  as  this  year,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  nothing 
in  the  statement  just  quoted  of  the  corn  having  become 
more  stable. 

NOTHING  ON  EXPERIMENTS. 

In  the  1908  report  there  is  not  one  word  of  any 
experiments  with  the  Silver  King  corn. 

From  the  foregoing  statements  in  the  university 
reports  it  seems  to  me  perfectly  evident  that  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin  has  not  discovered  anything  par- 
ticularly remarkable  about  the  Silver  King  corn,  as 
there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  anywhere  that  any 


308     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

special  advantages  to  the  State  from  this  corn  are 
claimed.  The  only  thing  the  authorities  claim  about 
the  improvement  in  their  breeding  of  the  corn  is  that 
it  has  become  more  stable  and  that  it  gives  more  satis- 
factory results  by  producing  a  greater  percentage  of 
seed  corn,  but,  as  I  have  already  shown,  this  statement 
is  not  correct. 

So  there  is  absolutely  no  basis  whatever  on  which 
this  university  can  go  before  the  public  with  this  corn. 

It  is  perfectly  evident,  from  the  yield,  that  the  uni- 
versity not  only  has  not  improved  this  corn,  but  that 
it  actually  has  gone  backward. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  see  this  matter  more 
clearly  I  give  the  following  statement: 

1904.    1905.     1906.    1907. 

Average  yield  per  acre,  bushels.  .72.5      58.5        75        63.8 
Percentage  of  seed  corn 16.5% 17% 

No  COMPARISON  MADE. 

In  none  of  these  experiments  that  the  university 
has  made  does  it  compare  this  Silver  King  corn  with 
any  other  corn.  Consequently  I  do  not  understand  how 
it  can  claim  any  merit  for  it.  Without  comparisons 
there  is  no  basis  for  judgment  as  to  its  value. 

Soon  after  these  articles  appeared  in  the  Record- 
Herald  I  wrote  to  President  Charles  R.  Van  Hise,  of 
this  university,  requesting  that  he  give  me  clear  and 
definite  information  as  to  how  this  result  in  great 
increase  in  production  of  corn  was  brought  about,  and 
in  answer  I  received  a  letter  from  Prof.  R.  A.  Moore, 
of  the  department  of  agronomy  at  this  university,  in 
which,  after  describing  the  method  of  breeding  corn, 
which  is  the  same  as  mentioned  in  the  reports  of  the 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     309 

experimental  station,  and  in  any  event  has  no  bearing 
on  the  case,  as  what  we  want  are  results,  he  says: 
"  We  find  that  we  have  been  enabled  to  nearly  double 
the  yield  of  corn  by  this  process  of  breeding,"  and  this 
is  all  he  has  to  say  on  the  subject  of  the  alleged  great 
increase  in  yield! 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  instead  of  this  statement  that 
they  have  improved  the  corn  being  true,  their  reports, 
as  I  have  already  mentioned,  show  that  they  have  gone 
backward  in  breeding  the  corn. 

The  college  authorities  boast  that  some  of  the  seed 
was  sold  at  from  $3  to  $6  a  bushel.  If  this  were  true 
it  certainly  was  a  great  swindle  to  the  farmers,  and 
must  have  resulted  from  the  university's  false  state- 
ments in  regard  to  its  merit,  as  from  their  own  experi- 
ence the  Silver  King  is  not  worth  anything  as  a  seed 
corn. 

These  various  reports  have  considerable  to  say  with 
regard  to  what  the  members  of  the  experiment  asso- 
ciation are  doing  with  this  corn,  but  as  the  whole  mat- 
ter rests  on  the  question  of  what  the  university  has 
done  in  the  way  of  breeding  and  improving  this  corn, 
the  question  of  what  the  experiment  association  has 
done  is  entirely  irrelevant. 

V 

A  BACKWARD  OPERATION. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  the  association's  experi- 
ments with  this  corn  are  the  same  as  the  university 
has  been  making,  it  has  been  a  backward  operation  any- 
way. If  the  university,  which  has  been  paying  close 
attention  to  this  corn,  has  gone  backward,  what  could 
be  expected  from  farmers,  who  paid  but  little  atten- 
tion to  the  subject? 


310     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

Also,  with  the  small  amount  of  land  that  this  uni- 
versity has  for  experimental  purposes,  it  certainly 
could  not  produce  any  considerable  amount  of  seed  to 
distribute  to  these  people  anyway;  that  is,  the  seed 
from  eighteen  acres  would  not  go  far  toward  supply- 
ing I75»ooo  farmers. 

It  is  quite  clear  from  all  the  information  we  can 
get  on  this  corn  question  that  there  is  an  opportunity 
for  the  experimental  stations  of  universities  to  do  some 
good  in  the  way  of  improving  the  corn  crop,  for  the 
reason  that  with  corn,  like  some  other  field  products, 
there  is  an  immense  variation  in  the  yield  of  certain 
varieties  in  certain  parts  of  the  country.  This  is  quite 
evident  from  the  enormous  number  of  varieties  of  corn 
that  are  on  the  market.  Corn  that  will  do  well  in  one 
section  often  will  not  do  well  in  other  sections. 

I  have  been  told  of  a  case  where  Virginia  corn 
was  brought  into  the  State  of  Kentucky  and  produced 
150  bushels  to  the  acre.  But  this  same  corn  in  other 
parts  of  the  South  did  not  do  well  at  all. 

This  being  a  very  important  matter,  and  the  uncer- 
tainty of  corn  being  so  great,  I  maintain  that  an  enter- 
prising experimental  station  would  have  the  members 
of  its  experiment  association  test  every  variety  of  corn 
that  is  prominent  anywhere,  and  would  buy  the  corn 
by  the  carload  and  have  these  farmers  test  it  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  State.  This  is  the  way  a  business 
man  would  go  about  a  matter  of  this  kind ;  but  appar- 
ently these  people  have  done  nothing  at  all  in  this  way. 

WHAT  CORN  DOES  WELL? 

So  far  as  I  can  see  from  these  reports  of  the  experi- 
mental station  at  Madison,  they  have  done  nothing  in 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      311 

the  way  of  ascertaining  what  kind  of  corn  does  well 
in  that  State,  or  in  any  particular  part  of  the  State. 

They  have  made  no  systematic  or  businesslike 
effort  to  develop  this  most  important  subject. 

I  maintain,  therefore,  that  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin, instead  of  being  entitled  to  any  credit  for 
helping  the  farmer  on  the  corn  question,  has  been 
exceedingly  neglectful  of  its  duty  to  the  State.  This 
is  certainly  what  the  experimental  station  is  for  and 
it  is  its  most  important  duty. 

If  the  corn  crop  of  the  State  has  been  improved  it  is 
not  due  to  anything  this  university  has  done,  but  more 
particularly  to  the  enterprise  of  the  seed-corn  men. 

It  seems  to  me  that  when  corn  shows  deterioration 
and  does  not  improve  under  close,  systematic  breeding, 
it  would  be  folly  to  go  on  with  it. 

REGARDING  BARLEY. 

As  to  what  the  university  has  done  to  improve 
barley,  I  would  say  that  the  further  I  look  into  this 
subject,  the  worse  the  showing  for  it. 

From  all  reports  there  is  practically  no  difference 
between  the  Mansbury  and  the  Oderbrucker  barley. 
The  reports  show  that  Mansbury  barley  was  intro- 
duced into  Wisconsin  from  Germany  in  1859  by  Dr. 
H.  Grunow,  and  in  1861  was  introduced  extensively. 
Undoubtedly  this  barley  has  been  cultivated  to  a  great 
extent  for  many  years  and  it  would  seem  strange  that 
the  college  experts  should  neglect  the  old-established 
barley  and  then  take  it  up  under  a  new  name.  It 
looks  as  though  they  thought  there  was  no  glory  in 
introducing  the  old  barley  under  its  old  name,  and  so 
were  trying  to  get  some  glory  by  palming  off  the  old 
barley  under  a  new  name  as  a  new  discovery.  This 


312     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

is  a  common  trick  of  merchants,  but  I  did  not  suppose 
that  educators  would  resort  to  this  sort  of  trickiness. 
The  Oderbrucker  barley  was  imported  from  Ger- 
many by  the  Ontario  Agricultural  College  and  was 
obtained  from  that  source  by  Professor  Moore.  The 
Oderbrucker  and  the  Mansbury  are  so  nearly  alike  in 
every  particular  that  an  authority  in  the  American 
Brewers'  Review  recommends  the  dropping  of  the 
name  Oderbrucker  altogether. 

CENSURE  Is  MERITED. 

It  seems  strange  that  the  university  has  been  all 
these  years  discovering  the  merits  of  these  two  bar- 
leys, and  instead  of  giving  it  credit  for  putting  them 
before  the  public  at  this  time  it  should  be  severely 
censured  for  not  having  done  so  before.  I  might  say 
that  I  have  endeavored  to  find  out  from  the  authorities 
at  Madison  what  they  have  done  to  introduce  this 
barley  at  the  present  time.  The  only  thing  I  have  been 
able  to  ascertain  is  that  they  have  cooperated  with 
about  500  out  of  2,500  members  of  the  Wisconsin 
Experimental  Association. 

The  university  has  published  no  literature  on  the 
subject,  and  when  we  consider  that  there  are  about 
175,000  farmers  in  Wisconsin,  you  can  see  that  by  aid- 
ing only  one  out  of  350  what  it  has  done  toward  intro- 
ducing this  barley  is  only  a  trifle,  even  if  it  had  any 
special  merit. 

LONG  USED  BY  FARMERS. 

But  the  fact  being  that  the  Oderbrucker  is  identical 
with  the  Mansbury,  which  these  farmers  undoubtedly 
had  been  using  for  a  great  many  years,  it  will  be 
readily  understood  that  the  university  claims  to  hav- 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.     313 

ing  done  anything  in  the  way  of  improving  the  barley 
of  the  State  are  absolutely  without  foundation. 

Now,  as  to  the  real  merit  of  Oderbrucker  barley, 
I  would  say  that  up  to  this  time  the  Wisconsin  product 
has  no  standing  as  a  high-grade  malting  barley.  The 
largest  maltster  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin  has  never 
adopted  it  and  says  in  a  letter  that  I  have  that  he  is 
now  experimenting  with  it.  Mr.  Busch,  of  the 
Anheuser-Busch  Brewing  Company,  who  is  always 
demanding  the  best  barley  that  he  can  get,  is  not  using 
the  Wisconsin  Oderbrucker. 

To  sum  this  matter  up,  I  would  say  that  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin  has  practically  done  nothing 
whatever  to  improve  the  barley  crop  of  the  State ;  in 
fact,  there  is  no  evidence,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  that 
this  university  has  made  any  improvement  in  breeding 
anything,  nor  have  I  seen  the  claim  made  that  this 
university  is  trying  to  be  of  any  service  to  the  State  in 
any  department  except  that  of  agriculture, 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE  RURAL  SCHOOLS  — A  SADLY  NEG- 
LECTED FOUNDATION. 

Regarding  the  assertion  (quoted  on  page  303)  that 
the  entire  State  of  Wisconsin  "  goes  to  college/'  let 
us  see  what  the  facts  are;  what  is  the  condition,  for 
instance,  of  the  country  schools  of  that  State. 

I  am  fortunate  in  being  able  to  present  these  facts, 
as  given  to  me  by  a  gentleman  amply  qualified  to  speak 
on  this  subject  —  one  who  has  been  a  pupil  and  a 
teacher  in  the  country  schools  of  Wisconsin,  principal 
of  a  graded  and  small  country  high  school,  and  for  six 
and  a  half  years  county  superintendent  of  schools. 

I  asked  him  for  information  (facts,  not  opinions) 
as  to  the  condition  of  the  rural  schools  in  his  State,  the 
cause  or  causes  of  these  conditions,  and  the  average 
amount  of  education  received  by  the  farmers'  boys  in 
the  district  schools  of  Wisconsin.  The  substance  of 
this  interview  follows: 

A  STRONG  ARRAY  OF  FACTS. 

After  referring  in  a  general  way  to  his  work  and 
his  facilities  for  extended  and  close  observation,  my 
informant  said : 

It  is  no  secret  that  in  Wisconsin  we  are  a  long,  long 
way  from  the  ideal  country  school,  and  the  reason  can 
be  expressed  in  one  word  —  neglect.  In  the  past,  and  it  is 
largely  true  to-day,  the  country  school  has  been  neglected 
by  all  who  should  have  given  it  their  fostering  care. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      315 

But  the  neglect  of  the  country  school  by  State  and 
educators  is  trivial  compared  with  the  almost  criminal 
neglect  of  it  by  the  farmers  themselves.  To  one  who 
hasn't  seen  it  it  is  inconceivable. 

He  then  showed  how  niggardly  the  farmers  have 
been  in  providing  for  their  schools,  how  they  have 
increased  their  school  year  and  its  requirements  just 
enough  to  get  their  share  of  State  money,  and  how 
they  have  searched  far  and  wide  in  their  efforts  to  get, 
not  the  best,  but  the  cheapest  teachers.  On  this  point 
he  cited  the  following  typical  example: 

I  recall  a  very  striking  instance  during  my  first  year  as 
county  superintendent.  Previously,  a  certain  district  had 
been  having  seven  months'  school  and  had  paid  $20  for 
the  fall  and  spring  terms  of  three  months,  and  $25  for  the 
winter  of  four  months  —  a  yearly  salary  of  $160. 

I  was  ashamed  to  have  a  teacher  under  my  supervision 
at  such  a  salary.  After  directing  a  young  woman  of  expe- 
rience to  apply,  I  promised  her  that  I  would  endeavor  to 
keep  all  other  applicants  away,  so  that  she  could  fight  out 
the  salary  question  unembarrassed  by  competition.  She 
demanded  the  exorbitant  sum  of  $30  a  month.  They 
couldn't  afford  it;  they  would  wait,  and  they  did.  The 
summer  passed ;  no  applicants.  Fall  came ;  they  searched 
far  and  wide,  but  most  schools  had  opened  and  all  who 
wanted  positions  had  them. 

SAVING  $5  A  YEAR  ON  THE  TEACHER. 

Finally,  about  October  I,  they  compromised  on  $25,  fall 
and  spring,  and  $30  for  winter.  To  make  the  burden  as 
easy  to  bear  as  possible,  they  took  one  month  from  the 
winter  term  and  added  it  to  the  spring  and  fall  terms, 
and  thus  saved  $5. 

I  presume  you  think  that  this  was  some  small,  poor 
district  far  removed  from  civilization.  Far  from  it.  It  is 
two  miles  from  a  thriving  city;  land  sells  from  $100  up; 
while  the  assessed  valuation  last  year  was  $200,000. 


316     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

What  kind  of  a  school  board  was  it?  The  clerk  was 
a  dealer  in  fancy  blooded  stock,  which  annually  carries 
off  premiums  at  the  State  and  county  fairs,  and  the  other 
members  were  like  unto  him. 

A  CONDITION  FAR  Too  GENERAL. 

I  am  ashamed  to  state  in  how  many  districts  in  Wis- 
consin at  that  time,  and  even  now,  the  same  experience 
might  be  duplicated  in  all  its  essential  features. 

In  connection  with  the  statement  that  "  the  school- 
houses  have  been  neglected  in  a  manner  to  bring  the 
blush  of  shame  to  any  self-respecting  citizen,"  and 
describing  one  of  these  buildings  as  a  type  of  the  worst 
results  of  such  neglect,  he  thus  pictured  the  teacher  in 
charge : 

Her  speech  was  ungrammatical,  her  preparation  having 
extended  but  little  beyond  the  completion  of  the  course 
of  study  she  was  now  trying  to  teach.  I  never  saw  any 
one  who  was  working  more  earnestly,  according  to  the 
light  she  had.  She  drove  three  miles  each  morning,  took 
care  of  her  horse,  dug  the  wood  from  the  snow,  built  her 
fires  and  swept  —  as  far  as  possible  —  and  for  six  hours 
strove  to  make  those  girls  and  boys  into  efficient  citizens. 
Then  she  drove  home  to  prepare  her  lessons  for  the 
morrow.  And  for  those  services,  properly  and  faithfully 
rendered  in  educating  future  presidents,  she  received  the 
munificent  sum  of  $27.50  a  month,  a  yearly  salary 
of  $192.50. 

The  teacher's  uncle  was  a  county  officer  and  an 
ex-teacher,  and  to  him  I  related  my  discovery.  He  smiled 
and  said:  "It's  just  the  same,  then,  as  it  was  twenty- 
five  years  ago  when  I  taught  there  and  wore  my  overcoat 
during  school  hours  to  keep  from  freezing." 

Such  conditions  can  be  matched  in  every  county  in 
Wisconsin.  In  the  new  counties  where  buildings  have 
been  constructed  recently,  they,  of  course,  are  in  fairly 
good  condition.  My  district  contained  three  like  the  one 
I  have  described,  while  several  more  were  nearly  as  bad. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING;     317 

Every  county  superintendent  with  whom  I  have  ever 
talked  has  practically  admitted  that  he  has  had  just  such 
cases. 

AN  INEVITABLE  COMBINATION. 

It  will  be  seen  that  poor  buildings,  inadequate  equip- 
ment, a  short  school  year  and  low  salaries  usually  go 
together. 

After  referring  to  the  school  grounds  as  being  too 
small,  the  absence  of  beautifying  buildings  and 
grounds,  and  the  fact  that  more  than  eighty-five  per 
cent  of  the  country  teachers  are  their  own  janitors,  he 
added : 

Such  conditions  are  much  more  prevalent  than  they 
are  supposed  to  be,  than  they  ought  to  be.  There  is  no 
use  deluding  ourselves.  There  are  many  districts  where 
few  or  none  of  these  conditions  exist,  but  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  sixty  to  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  country  teachers 
to-day  are  laboring  under  conditions  nearly  as  adverse. 

The  State  superintendent  reports  37  teachers  in  1908 
who  received  less  than  $20;  526  who  received  not  to 
exceed  $25;  1,820  not  to  exceed  $30,  and  2,691  not  to 
exceed  $35;  a  total  of  5,074  who  received  $35  or  less. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  vast  majority  of  these  were 
country  teachers.  If  so,  there  were  not  more  than  2,000 
teachers  in  all  who  received  more  than  $35. 

Consider  the  work,  the  conditions  for  it,  and  the  re- 
muneration, and  is  it  any  wonder  that  there  are  prac- 
tically none  in  the  country  schools  to-day  except  the 
young,  the  untrained  and  the  inexperienced? 

Just  here  let  me  mention  one  effort  of  my  own  to 
get  at  these  country-school  conditions.  The  Wiscon- 
sin Legislature  of  1905  provided  for  a  rural  school 
inspector  and  specified  his  duties,  part  of  which  were 
to  report  to  the  State  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion "  the  conditions  found  in  the  schools  and  districts 
inspected." 


318  TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING, 

SUPPRESSED  REPORTS. 

I  wrote  to  Mr.  C.  P.  Gary,  State  superintendent, 
asking  for  a  copy  of  what  this  rural  inspector  had 
reported.  The  letter  received  from  Mr.  Gary  did  not 
give  me  the  slightest  information  on  this  point,  and  I 
can  get  none  from  any  other  source.  Why  have  these 
reports  not  been  published  ?  I  can  come  to  no  conclu- 
sion other  than  that  this  inspector's  reports  have  been 
suppressed  because  they  showed  conditions  so  bad  that 
it  would  be  a  disgrace  to  the  State  to  make  them 
public. 

In  confirmation  of  this  conclusion,  I  asked  the 
gentlemen  interviewed  here  about  these  reports,  and  he 
answered :  "  Any  one  who  knows  the  man  who  held 
the  office  of  inspector  during  the  period  covered  by 
these  reports  knows  that  he  found  conditions,  that  he 
formed  conclusions,  that  he  had  remedies.  Why  were 
they  suppressed?  Political  cowardice  is  probably  the 
answer." 

Why  do  these  disgraceful  conditions  exist  and  per- 
sist? Who  is  to  blame  for  them? 

My  informant  answered,  placing  the  blame  partly 
on  the  State  at  large,  to  a  considerable  extent  on  the 
University  of  Wisconsin,  and  most  of  all  on  the 
farmers  themselves.  He  said : 

We  have  been  so  busy  building,  maintaining  and 
blindly  worshiping  the  so-called  higher  institutions  of 
learning,  that  we  have  forgotten  the  school  of  the  masses, 
the  school  of  our  fathers,  the  school  where  the  real  men, 
"the  live  wires,"  of  to-day  are  supposed  to  have  laid  the 
foundation  of  their  careers.  We  have  lavished  money 
upon  our  great  university,  dealt  liberally  with  our  nearly 
three  hundred  high  schools,  but  have  been  miserly  in  our 
treatment  of  the  country  school. 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      319 

COMPARED  WITH  THE  PRICE  OF  A  Cow. 

More  money  was  recently  expended  by  the  university 
in  the  purchase  of  a  cow  for  the  dairy  farm  than  was 
appropriated  the  last  two  years  for  all  the  professional 
literature  and  apparatus  of  the  teachers'  department. 

This  department,  by  the  way,  is  supposed  to  play 
a  direct  part  in  the  making  of  teachers  for  the  country 
schools.  To  continue  the  interview : 

The  farmer  has  been  too  stingy  to  provide  a  first-class 
school.  He  has  had  the  poorest  when  he  should  have  had 
the  best,  because  he  can  have  the  best  for  the  least  money. 
He  has  no  expensive  site  or  building  to  purchase  and 
maintain.  He  can  practically  put  all  his  money  in  a 
teacher. 

Theoretically,  the  farmer  believes  very  strongly  in 
education;  practically,  he  doesn't,  for  what  to  him  seem 
very  good  reasons.  He  does  not  take  kindly  to  giving 
his  boy  a  university  education  and  having  him  drift  off 
to  the  city,  there  to  contribute  his  brawn,  his  brain,  his 
honesty,  to  the  city's  cause  and  accumulate  but  little 
money,  while  his  neighbor's  son,  whose  education  did 
not  exceed  beyond  the  fifth  grade,  has  remained  on  the 
farm  and  accumulated  his  share  of  this  world's  goods. 

DRAWING  THE  BOY  FROM  THE  FARM. 

If  every  time  a  boy  secures  an  education  he  is  lost 
to  his  parents  and  the  farm,  the  farmer  naturally  con- 
cludes that  education  is  to  blame.  Between  an  ignorant 
boy  on  the  farm  and  an  educated  boy  away  from  the 
farm,  he  prefers  the  former. 

The  State,  the  educational  profession  and  the 
farmers  are  reaping  as  they  sowed.  Again  to  quote 
my  informant :  "  They  sowed  neglect  and  niggardli- 
ness, and  they  reaped  a  school  they  themselves  could 
not  defend." 


320  TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

How  much  of  an  education  is  the  country  boy 
receiving  in  such  a  school  as  his  father  has  provided  ? 
"  An  easy,  an  interesting  question,  but,  unfortu- 
nately, there  is  no  data  available,"  answers  this  county 
superintendent,  after  making  a  diligent  inquiry.  How- 
ever, from  the  results  of  this  inquiry,  he  is  able  to  show 
that  not  to  exceed  forty  per  cent  of  the  country  chil- 
dren reach  the  sixth  grade,  and  that  only  one  third  of 
those  who  enter  this1  grade  complete  the  course. 

So  far  as  statistics  have  been  secured,  it  would 
appear  that  the  average  farmer's  boy  receives  about 
one-half  the  education  provided  for  him  in  the  country 
schools,  such  as  they  are.  And  the  gentleman  quoted 
assures  me  that  "  it  is  entirely  safe  to  say  the  efficiency 
of  our  country-school  plant  is  not  more  than  fifty  per 
cent  of  what  it  should  be,  because  of  irregular  attend- 
ance. Half  of  what  we  spend  is  wasted." 

If  the  farmer's  lad  is  getting  not  more  than  an 
average  of  half  what  these  exceedingly  poor  country 
schools  provide  in  the  way  of  education,  and  the  effi- 
ciency of  half  of  this  is  lost,  perhaps  some  of  the 
higher  mathematicians  of  the  university  at  Madison 
will  inform  us  just  how  much  real  education  he  is 
getting. 

EDUCATION  GIVEN  FARMERS'  CHILDREN. 

I  quote  from  another  county  superintendent,  who 
thus  summarizes  the  education  received  in  the  country 
schools  of  Wisconsin  —  whose  university  is  "  literally 
teaching  the  entire  2,500,000  population  of  the  State," 
according  to  Mr.  Leichliter : 

Their  (farmers'  children)  attendance  at  school  is 
scarcely  one  hundred  days  a  year  and  the  instruction,  for 
the  most  part,  inefficient.  Barely  two-thirds  advance 
beyond  sixth  grade.  They  are  neither  capable  nor  inclined 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      321 

to  read,  and,  furthermore,  they  are  required  to  labor  so 
strenuously  that  there  is  little  time  for  reading;  they  are 
being  educated  from  the  farm.  There  are  very  few 
farmers  who  even  know  that  there  is  any  "literature  of 
their  calling,"  and  these  few  don't  know  how  to  get  it, 
and  wouldn't  read  it  if  they  had  it.  The  farmer  needs 
a  collegiate  course  in  general  and  the  short  course  in 
agriculture  in  particular,  that  he  may  read  the  "  litera- 
ture." Then,  with  the  aid  of  the  Century  Dictionary  and 
Encyclopedia  Britannica  for  reference,  he  will  get  a  little. 
The  university  is  spending  its  energy  in  preparing  young 
people  to  become  high-school  teachers,  engineers,  travel- 
ing salesmen  and  night  clerks  in  hotels.  Its  high-school 
domination  does  tend  to  give  the  farmer  boy  and  girl 
poorer  teachers,  but  the  latter  proposition  affects  them 
little,  if  any.  The  conditions  on  our  farms  are  such  that 
the  young  people  who  have  physical  strength,  pride  and 
ambition  make  their  "get-away"  just  as  fast  as  God  will 
permit. 

This  county  superintendent,  by  the  way,  is  even 
more  severe  than  I  have  been  in  criticising  the  sort  of 
"  literature  "  sent  out  by  the  agricultural  department 
of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  the  quality  of  educa- 
tion given  to  the  farmers'  children,  and  the  ability  of 
the  farmers  to  understand  what  the  professors  at 
Madison  prepare  for  them. 

OTHER  STATES  FAR  AHEAD. 

Thus  we  see  that,  notwithstanding  the  boasts  of  its 
university,  Wisconsin  is  sadly  behind  the  times  in  the 
way  of  genuine  public  education.  It  lags  far  in  the 
rear  of  several  States.  North  Dakota,  for  instance, 
has  a  law  that  places  the  minimum  wage  of  country 
school  teachers  at  $45  a  month  for  the  second  grade. 
Teachers  of  a  higher  grade  must  receive  more.  If  a 
district  is  not  able  to  pay  this  amount,  it  is  required  to 
draw  upon  the  State  treasurer  for  the  difference. 
21 


322      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

Other  States  having  a  minimum  wage  law  are: 
Indiana,  West  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and 
Ohio.  All  of  these  States  are  far  ahead  of  Wisconsin, 
yet  their  universities  are  not  bragging  about  "  teaching 
the  entire  population." 

THE  DISTRICT  SCHOOLS  OF  ILLINOIS. 

That  this  deplorable  condition  of  the  schools  fur- 
nished for  the  common  education  of  farmers'  children 
is  not  peculiar  to  Wisconsin  is  evident  from  two 
addresses  delivered  by  Professor  Davenport,  dean  of 
the  Illinois  College  of  Agriculture,  the  one  entitled 
"Education  for  Efficiency,"  the  other,  "The  Next 
Step  in  Agricultural  Education."  And  to  this  I  shall 
add  the  testimony  of  Mr.  A.  F.  Nightingale,  superin- 
tendent of  education  for  Cook  county,  Illinois. 

Professor  Davenport  condemns  the  old-fashioned 
colleges,  with  nothing  but  classical  courses,  but  con- 
siders the  ordinary  college  a  most  desirable  thing  when 
it  is  combined  with  industry  and  the  practical  affairs 
of  life. 

He  believes  that  the  education  should  be  carried 
to  the  pupil ;  that  young  men  and  young  women  should 
be  able  to  attend  school  and  still  be  at  home  nights. 
He  argues  this  is  practical  for  high  schools,  but  not 
for  colleges.  Apparently  in  the  latter  there  is  no  help 
for  the  boy  and  girl  being  taken  away  from  home.  Mr. 
Davenport's  main  argument  seems  to  be  that  all  sub- 
jects should  be  taught  in  the  same  school,  whereas  in 
all  other  lines  the  great  idea  is  to  "  specialize." 

"  BARKING  "  FOR  THE  "  SIDE  SHOWS." 

Dean  Davenport  has  gone  in  head  over  heels  for 
what  President  Hadley  has  called  the  "  side  shows  " 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      323 

that  are  eating  up  the  main  circus.  The  higher  educa- 
tionists appear  to  have  a  strong  desire  to  work  in 
the  "  side  shows  "  of  education.  They  recognize  that 
the  main  show  is  played  out  and  that  it  is  only  by  the 
aid  of  the  "  side  shows  "  they  can  hold  their  positions. 

So  the  chief  effort  now  is  to  make  these  "  side 
shows  "  seem  to  be  not  only  most  important,  but  that 
without  them  the  country  will  "  go  to  the  dogs."  This 
is  the  latest  device  for  "  pulling  the  wool "  over  the 
public's  eyes. 

The  educational  "  side-show  "  advocates  overlook 
the  fact  that  the  country  has  got  along  very  well 
up  to  the  present  without  their  aid,  and  that  the  people 
who  are  most  interested  in  this  subject  of  education  — 
real  education  —  don't  seem  to  be  attracted  by  the 
"  side-show  barkers."  The  school  faddists  seem  to 
think  that  they  know  better  what  the  public  needs 
than  it  does  itself,  and  they  are  determined  to  furnish 
it,  whether  the  public  wants  it  or  not. 

Among  other  things,  Dean  Davenport  insists  on 
maintaining  the  four  years'  course  in  agriculture.  I 
can  not  conceive  how  he  can  imagine  that  this  four 
years'  course  —  which  means  practically  twelve  years 
more  of  schooling  than  the  average  farmer  gets  —  is 
going  to  make  it  pleasant  or  desirable  for  the  farmer's 
boy  to  go  back  to  milking  cows,  feeding  pigs,  cleaning 
stables,  and  the  other  drudgery  of  the  farm.  Not  only 
has  the  lad  been  spoiled  for  these  necessary  tasks,  but 
for  any  other  sphere  of  useful  life. 

From  Professor  Davenport's  point  of  view  there  is 
pressing  demand  for  these  "  side  shows,"  especially 
that  of  agriculture.  I  question  the  correctness  of  this 
assertion,  as  only  one  in  every  130  farmers'  boys  goes 
as  far  as  the  county  high  schools.  Thus  there  would 


324      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

be  only  one  in  130  who  could  consistently  make  a 
demand  for  an  agricultural  college  course.  Is  it  for 
this  one  boy  in  130  that  Mr.  Davenport  recommends 
that  the  county  high  schools  teach  "  soil  physics  "  and 
"  soil  fertility,"  and  maintain  "  laboratory  fields  in 
crop  production  "  ? 

How  under  the  sun  does  he  expect  that  boys  who 
have  had  only  four  years  in  the  none  too  good  district 
schools  can  understand  these  things  ?  From  these  sub- 
jects not  even  educated  farmers  can  get  any  benefit. 

WORKING  AT  THE  WRONG  END. 

Dean  Davenport  certainly  is  working  on  the  wrong 
end  of  the  educational  problem,  and  the  gross  incon- 
sistency of  his  position  is  apparent  when  we  consider 
the  vast  difference  between  the  condition  of  the  coun- 
try common  schools  and  those  he  so  strongly  favors. 

The  facts  are  simply  these:  The  farmers'  boys, 
instead  of  getting  the  high  school  and  college  schooling 
he  claims  they  ought  to  have,  are  not  getting  on  the 
average  more  than  four  years  of  district-school  edu- 
cation. He  seems  to  be  disgusted  with  the  high  schools 
for  being  preparatory  schools  for  colleges,  instead  of 
serving  the  public  directly ;  but  he  says  not  one  word 
throughout  these  addresses  about  the  deplorable  and 
inefficient  condition  of  the  district  schools.  He  is 
deeply  solicitous  for  the  one  boy  that  gets  as  far  as 
the  high  school,  but  has  no  sympathy  for  the  129  poor 
devils  who  get  but  a  little  district-school  education. 

It  is  the  same  with  all  the  higher  educators.  They 
are  willing  to  sacrifice  an  enormous  amount  of  the  best 
blood  of  our  youths  to  maintain  their  position,  and  are 
taking  thousands  of  young  men,  who  might  be 
employed  at  something  useful,  and  making  miserable 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      325 

failures  of  them,  simply  that  indifferent  school  teachers 
may  hold  their  jobs. 

After  looking  at  this  fancy  picture  drawn  by  Dean 
Davenport,  of  what  he  considers  education  should  be, 
"  higher  up,"  let  us  glance  at  the  condition  of  educa- 
tion "  lower  down,"  as  painted  by  Mr.  Nightingale, 
superintendent  of  schools  for  Cook  county,  Illinois. 
Here  we  have  the  difference  between  theory  and  prac- 
tice. 

TESTIMONY  OF  A.  F.  NIGHTINGALE. 

In  his  report  covering  the  period  from  July  I,  1902, 
to  June  30,  1904,  Mr.  Nightingale  says : 

Here  is  a  problem  which  well-nigh  defies  solution. 
Consecrated  to  the  work  as  one  may  be,  he  finds  that  the 
most  herculean  efforts,  the  largest  possible  expenditure 
of  thought  and  time,  however  rich  his  equipment,  however 
extended  his  self-sacrifice,  however  honest  his  plans  and 
however  determined  his  purpose,  will  not  bring  those 
results  which  he  so  ardently  hopes  to  see  and  which  are 
the  inspiration  of  his  thoughts  by  day  and  the  burden  of 
his  dreams  by  night. 

To  the  farmer  the  recurrence  of  the  seasons  means 
the  recurrence  of  seed-sowing,  and  through  his  labor  and 
watchfulness  and  incessant  care,  with  the  added  helps  of 
the  rains  that  fertilize  and  the  sunshine  that  ripens,  there 
comes  a  bountiful  harvest. 

The  seeds  of  unremitting  effort  sown  to  produce  a 
satisfactory  rural  school  harvest,  however,  find  germina- 
tion very  difficult.  The  rains  seem  to  chill  and  the  sun 
seems  to  wither  them.  *  *  * 

There  are  still  so-called  school  buildings  in  Cook 
county,  as  I  presume  in  every  county,  which  would  make 
neither  good  sheepfolds  nor  excellent  dog-kennels.  They 
are  antiquated,  shabby,  shop-worn,  obsolescent  and  obso- 
lete. They  never  were  fit  dwelling-places  for  human 
bodies  or  human  souls  for  six  hours  in  a  day.  *  *  * 

Many    schools    are    without    supplementary    reading, 


326     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

without  libraries,  without  maps,  without  charts,  without 
well-chosen,  well-graded  and  uniform  text-books,  with- 
out anything  to  encourage  and  uplift  or  inspire. 

Mr.  Nightingale  also  points  out  in  strong  terms  the 
shortsighted  and  niggardly  policy  that  has  prevailed 
in  the  employment  and  treatment  of  teachers  in  these 
rural  schools.  He  says  in  substance  that  not  only  are 
the  salaries  ridiculously  small  ($40  to  $45  a  month  for 
only  about  seven  months  in  the  year),  but  that  the 
teachers  have  to  board  at  very  inferior  places  among 
the  farmers,  often  have  to  walk  quite  a  distance  to 
and  from  school  in  all  kinds  of  weather,  and  are 
required  to  perform  all  sorts  of  drudgery,  such  as 
cutting  the  kindling,  carrying  coal  or  wood,  building 
their  own  fires  and  cleaning  their  own  schoolhouses. 
He  adds: 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  only  the  inexperienced  and  in- 
competent or,  in  other  words,  the  mediocre  among  teach- 
ers, will  accept  these  positions,  and  that  they  seldom 
remain  in  one  place  more  than  one  season? 

In  Mr.  Nightingale's  next  report  (July  I,  1904,  to 
June  30,  1906) ,  he  takes  the  ground  that  these  schools 
have  continued  to  go  backward,  that  the  trustees  are 
striking  harder  bargains  with  the  teachers,  and  that 
the  teachers  are  of  less  account  and  their  surroundings 
more  discouraging  than  formerly.  He  continues : 

If  the  farmers  or  the  men  in  any  kind  of  business  who 
hire  teachers  should  till  their  fields  and  manage  their 
affairs  as  they  supervise  the  schools,  they  would  reap  in 
the  autumn  time  less  than  they  sowed  in  the  springtime, 
and  the  balance  on  their  ledgers  at  the  close  of  the  year 
would  be  on  the  wrong  side. 

Speaking  of  the  country  children,  he  asks : 

Why  is  it  that  the  schools  which  they  attend,  with 
notable  exceptions,  seem  to  repress  rather  than  impress, 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      327 

to  dull  rather  than  sharpen  their  wits,  and  to  leave  them 
at  the  end  of  the  year  with  the  merest  modicum  of  in- 
teresting and  profitable  knowledge?  There  are  many 
reasons,  and,  sad  to  say,  potent  reasons. 

He  then  calls  attention  to  the  defects  already  men- 
tioned, such  as  poorly  paid  teachers,  their  short  tenure, 
etc.,  and  adds : 

I  invite  the  attention  of  every  one  concerned  in  these 
rural  schools  to  these  startling  facts.  From  them  I  can 
draw  but  one  conclusion  —  never,  never,  never,  until  this 
slight  tenure  of  office  is  changed  radically,  will  these 
schools  along  the  countryside,  in  this  county  or  any  other 
county,  rise  above  the  low  level  of  a  most  discouraging 
mediocrity. 

In  his  next  and  latest  report  (July  I,  1906,  to  June 
30,  1908),  Mr.  Nightingale  has  considerable  more  to 
say  on  this  subject,  the  substance  of  his  remarks  being 
that,  with  very  few  exceptions,  no  progress  has  been 
made  in  the  rural  schools,  which,  as  he  says  truly,  is 
"  exceedingly  discouraging," 


328      TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

A  SUGGESTION  TO  RURAL  SCHOOL  AUTHORITIES. 

In  view  of  the  conditions  just  shown,  I  think  if 
the  people  who  have  the  rural  educational  matters  of 
Wisconsin  and  Illinois  —  and  doubtless  other  States  — 
in  hand  were  honest  in  their  treatment  of  teachers, 
they  would  post  in  their  Normal  schools  something 
like  this : 


The  State  is  greatly  in  need  of  teachers  for  rural 
schools  and  offers  the  following  terms  to  young 
women  to  become  teachers: 

They  must  pass  examination,  and  also 

must  have  six  months'  practical  training  in  teaching. 
Salary  for  the  first  year  to  be  from  $20  to  $25  a 
month,  for  seven  months  of  the  year. 

Besides  being  qualified  teachers  they  are  ex- 
pected to  be  persons  of  character,  and  also  must  have 
the  ability  to  maintain  order  and  discipline  in  the 
schoolroom. 

They  will  be  expected  to  clean  the  schools,  cut 
kindling,  make  fires,  and  see  that  the  school  is  prop- 
erly ventilated.  They  will  also  shovel  snow,  etc. 

They  can  usually  find  board  near  the  schoolhouse 
at  about  $3  a  week.  They  will  be  expected  not  to 
complain  at  having  to  associate  with  farm-hands  and 
spend  their  evenings  in  the  kitchen. 


I  understand  that  district-school  boards  find  it  diffi- 
cult to  get  enough  teachers  for  these  schools.  If  this 
is  so,  surely  the  foregoing  liberal  offer  ought  to  bring 
plenty  of  material,  in  view  of  the  magnificent  reward 
offered  for  the  time  and  money  spent  in  acquiring  an 
education. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER. 

To  sum  up  this  whole  matter :  All  general  school- 
ing above  the  public  grammar  schools  is  worse  than 
useless.  This  higher  schooling  not  only  does  not 
improve  a  person  for  business,  but  it  does  not 
strengthen  or  develop  his  character.  It  has  just  the 
opposite  effect,  disqualifying  him  for  a  business  career, 
weakening  his  moral  structure,  and  highly  demoraliz- 
ing him  in  every  way. 

As  for  the  technical  and  special  schools,  I  am 
greatly  surprised  to  find  that  all  these  branches  of 
education  are  so  deficient,  wasteful,  and  of  so  little  use, 
as  my  investigations  have  shown  to  be  the  case.  No 
one  with  any  practical  knowledge  of  the  subject  will 
claim  that  there  is  anything  but  a  limited  use  for  them. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  we  could  get  along  perfectly  well 
with  but  few  of  such  schools,  and  that  ninety  per  cent 
of  all  the  enormous  expenditure  of  time  and  money 
demanded  by  higher  education  is  worse  than  wasted. 

On  the  other  hand,  glance  around  and  see  what 
has  been  accomplished,  and  still  is  being  done,  by  the 
practical  men  who  have  not  had  any  of  the  artificial 
aid  of  the  higher  educators.  These  are  the  men,  it  is 


330     TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING. 

safe  to  say,  who  have  increased  the  productiveness  of 
the  world  at  least  ten  times,  and  who  have  added. to 
our  enjoyment  of  life  in  proportion  at  least  equally 
great.  These  are  the  men  who  have  done  things,  not 
talked  about  doing  them  or  tried  to  show  how  they 
should  be  done. 

Look,  for  instance,  at  what  the  practical  man,  the 
inventor  and  the  manufacturer,  have  done  for  the 
farmer.  Every  implement  and  machine  he  uses  has 
come  from  the  men  who  work  in  and  manage  factories. 
How  would  the  farmer  like  to  go  back  fifty  years  and 
be  stripped  of  all  these  labor-saving  devices?  Let  him 
compare  what  the  practical  man  has  done  for  agri- 
culture and  what  the  agricultural  colleges  have  done. 

The  college  men  talk  as  though  they  knew  all  about 
every  other  man's  business,  and  that  they  could  man- 
age affairs  better  than  the  business  men  themselves. 
The  college  professors  and  teachers  are  prepared  to 
give  advice  on  all  subjects.  As  $2,ooo-a-year  teachers 
they  tell  us  how  to  turn  out  $5,000-  and  $io,ooo-a-year 
business  men. 

Isn't  it  a  bit  strange  that  it  never  has  occurred  to 
these  smart  college  fellows  to  go  into  business  for 
themselves?  Why  draw  a  small  salary  for  telling 
young  men  how  to  draw  big  salaries  if  you  are  capable 
of  drawing  the  big  salary  yourself? 

The  business  world  is  sadly  in  need  of  men  of 
brains  and  talent.  These  things  bring  a  large  premium, 
and  every  prominent  business  man  is  on  the  alert  to 
secure  them. 

I  believe  I  have  shown  clearly  that  higher  school- 
ing does  not  make  either  brains  or  ability.  And  as 
these  are  the  only  things  that  count  in  any  of  life's 
activities,  what  use  can  we  have  for  the  higher  schools  ? 


TECHNICAL  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLING.      331 

As  these  schools,  then,  are  not  needed,  they  can 
not  be  anything  but  a  curse,  as  one  English  writer  calls 
them. 

It  is  conservative  to  estimate  that  the  expense  of 
higher  education  to  this  nation  must  be  at  least  $100,- 
000,000  a  year.  And  this  enormous  sum  is  literally 
thrown  away,  much  to  the  injury  of  the  country  and 
its  people. 

For  this  vast  waste  of  money  means  blood  drawn 
right  from  the  people,  blankets  taken  from  their  beds, 
food  from  their  tables,  coal  from  their  cellars,  cloth- 
ing from  their  backs  —  all  in  the  line  of  sacrifice  on 
the  altar  of  higher  education. 

I  think  it  is  high  time  that  the  American  people 
realized  this,  for  I  believe  if  they  once  became  fully 
aroused  on  this  matter,  they  would  take  steps  to  compel 
the  higher  educators  to  go  to  work  and  earn  an  honest 
living.  If  the  professors  can  tell  us  how  to  raise  corn 
or  build  bridges  or  dig  tunnels  or  run  factories  or  man- 
age stores,  then  in  the  name  of  common  sense  let  us 
give  them  a  chance  to  show  us  how  these  things  should 
be  done. 


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